A female state trooper who accused deposed ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment also alleged that he had been 'm...
A female state trooper who accused deposed ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment also alleged that he had been 'making out' like a high schooler with his former top aide, Melissa DeRosa.
The romance between the sex pest former governor, 68, and 39 year-old DeRosa is allegedly revealed in Attorney General Letitia James' questioning of the state trooper.
The latest rumor was shared eight months after photos of Cuomo and DeRosa looking very cozy at a Manhattan restaurant resurfaced.
That snap was taken in 2016, and showed the colleagues apparently deep in conversation while gazing at one another.
Andrew Cuomo's top aide Melissa DeRosa was allegedly seen kissing her boss. The pair are pictured during an intimate Manhattan dinner in 2016
DeRosa is not identified by name in the new documents alleging the smooch, but sources said that hers is among several names blacked out and replaced with their position in the administration.
In DeRosa's case, 'Senior Staffer #1.' She vehemently denied the allegations in a statement released Friday night, and hinted that she was considering legal action.
The unidentified trooper who worked security for Cuomo was asked by a member of James' team if she'd ever seen anything happen between Cuomo and his senior staff.
'I had heard from Senior Investigator #1 that he once witnessed the Governor and Senior Staffer #1 like making out on the sidewalk like they were high schoolers,' the trooper responded. 'Again, he told me this. I didn't witness this. I wasn't even here at the time. But that's what I had heard.' It is unclear when the alleged kiss took place.
DeRosa (pictured left) was often seen at Cuomo's side during his COVID-19 press conferences
DeRosa herself denied the accusations in a tweet and a statement Friday
DeRosa seen in August arriving at her parents house before moving to a new residence
DeRosa, seen here with estranged husband Matthew Wing. The two announced their divorce a month ago
The trooper continued: 'I think everyone kind of like assumes or thinks that there's something going on between them.'
She was asked if she'd heard anything further: 'I heard a rumor that before Senior Staffer #1 [redacted] that the Governor and her were in a hotel room by themselves for like an hour. And then one of the two left the room.'
The trooper also said that during the early parts of COVID-19 lockdowns, the two staffers in question were 'basically living' at the governor's mansion.
She also claimed that the staffers would bring 'bikinis and bathing suits' to the residence.
'I don't really know anyone who stays at their boss' house like that.'
During an interview with James, Cuomo refused to deny that he had kissed DeRosa on the lips.
'It may have,' Cuomo said. 'I don't recall doing it, having a kiss on the lips with her.'
'You know, I was at her wedding,' he added. 'So sometimes there's different social functions. But I don't remember that, no,' he said.
'Okay. But it may have happened?' asked a lawyer on James' investigative team.
The trooper said that DeRosa and one other staffer basically 'lived' at the governor's mansion early on during lockdown
The revelations come from interviews with Cuomo and the staffers with Attorney General Letitia James' (pictured) investigative team. James has since announced a run for Cuomo's old job
'It may have happened,' Cuomo responded.
James' report, released August 3, detailed several allegations against Cuomo, 63, which forced him to resign under threat of impeachment a week later.
He also faces a misdemeanor charged for alleged groping of another aide, 33-year-old Brittany Commisso.
Former staffers previously told the New York Post that Cuomo either was dating or pursuing female aides while living with ex-girlfriend Sandra Lee was 'an open secret.'
DeRosa was revealed to be separating from Matt Wing, her husband of five years, last month.
DeRosa and Wing confirmed their impending divorce in a joint state that said, 'Despite the fact that this chapter in our lives is ending, we are and always will be very close friends.'
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi vehemently denied any romance between DeRosa and Cuomo in a statement.
'The fact that Tish James included these completely false bottom of the barrel rumors in her selectively released, partially redacted transcripts says more about her character and motivations than anything else,' he said.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi denied the reports and heavily criticized James in a statement Friday
Cuomo's senior spokesman Rich Azzopardi
Azzopardi has been a consistent critic of James' investigation.
'Multiple people have testified under oath that the Governor did not have a romantic relationship with any staffer and the AG's continued weaponization of this report for her own political gain is even more evidence of prosecutorial misconduct.'
Since the report was released, James has announced a primary challenge to Cuomo's successor and current Governor Kathy Hochul in 2022.
DeRosa denied the accusations herself in a statement Friday, and claims the allegations are sexist.
'As a young woman who has worked at the highest levels of government and politics, I'm used to other people making up and spreading rumors about me,' she said. 'Am I senior staffer #1? I have no idea – you'd have to ask the AG's office, but the things this person says is flat out false,' DeRosa added.
She then suggested she might take legal action against the unidentified trooper.
'It's beyond the pale for this trooper, who by her own admission I barely knew — who has already attempted to extort me for money — to make these accusations based on false rumors and for them to be printed in a newspaper. Not only is this ludicrous, it's hurtful, and potentially actionable.'
De Rosa has since issued a second set of Twitter screenshots which appear to confirm she had minimal contact with the state trooper who has made the allegations against her.
James' office has yet to respond to a request for comment.
The majority of the allegations that James said amounted to serial sexual harassment were non-physical.
One of them applied to a nurse who gave the governor his first on-camera COVID-19 test.
He told her she made the 'gown look good', which James considered sexual harassment.
Others said Cuomo asked them about their boyfriends - which he admits - and that he 'clearly' insinuated wanting to sleep with them, but never did.
Cuomo fight the claims, resisting an Albany impeachment proceeding and pushing on with the COVID governance he was revered for at the start of the year, before eventually bowing out.
Since resigning, he has made few public statements aside from to bash James and her report, which he says is all politically motivated.
The allegations of sexual misconduct peppered the final year of his ten year governorship.
He got the job after his predecessor, Elliot Spitzer, resigned in shame having been caught patronizing a prostitution service.
Cuomo always denied that he was a sex pest and said at worst, he made inappropriate comments and jokes as an affectionate Italian man, like his father was.
The sexual misconduct allegations came at the same time as claims of gross negligence stemming from Cuomo's order to send thousands of COVID-19 positive elderly people back into New York nursing homes, a decision which many say proved fatal.
Not only did those infected patients infect others and lead to more deaths, critics say Cuomo's administration also tried to cover it up by deliberately skewing COVID deaths numbers.
For months, his administration reported the deaths of people who contracted COVID in nursing homes as 'hospital deaths' because they had died in hospitals.
He was only reporting nursing home deaths for people who contracted COVID in the nursing home and died in the nursing home.
His administration says it was an innocent error in numbers reporting.
Cuomo's political enemies seized on that scandal and the sexual misconduct claims, both of which were made even more irresistible when he released a smug memoir last October in the height of the second wave, titled Lessons in Leadership.
Cuomo was panned for writing the self-congratulatory book at a time when dozens of people were still dying every day in the state.
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