Cuomo to be questioned in sexual harassment investigation

[ad_1]

Charlotte Bennett, a former aide to Mr. Cuomo, told The Times in February that the governor, who is about 40 years her senior, made sexual overtures while they were alone in his Capitol office, and once asked her if she had fallen asleep. With older men before.

Investigators interviewed Ms Bennett for eight hours under oath in May, testimony that her attorney, Debra Katz, described as “incredibly thorough and comprehensive”. Ms. Bennett also provided investigators with more than “120 pages of contemporary records” intended to support her claims, Ms Katz said.

Mr Cuomo, who initially apologized for making “people feel uncomfortable”, recently forcefully denied any wrongdoing, saying he was keen to tell his side of the story. His aides appeared to discredit the investigation, suggesting that it was motivated by Mrs. James’s political motives: she is rumored to be interested in running for governor.

The investigation is being conducted by outside lawyers to avoid the emergence of a conflict of interest. One attorney has a history with Mr. Cuomo: Mr. Kim was a senior adviser to Brett Barrara, the former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, when the bureau was investigating Mr. Cuomo’s 2014 decision to dissolve the Moreland Commission, the anti-corruption commission.

In 2017, Kim took over as acting US attorney general for 10 months when President Donald J. Trump forced Mr. Bharara out of office. During that time, Mr. Kim was involved in pretrial preparation in the trial of Joseph Berkoko, a former close aide to the governor who was convicted on federal corruption charges in 2018.

The long months waiting for the attorney general’s report left the state Capitol in suspense, but it also gave Cuomo time to make an effort to rehabilitate his image, stabilize his poll numbers, and garner support among elected officials and key constituencies, especially. black voters. He has sought to offer a semblance of normality by holding press conferences and ribbon-cutting events to celebrate New York’s economic reopening, sometimes siding with politicians who had previously called for him to resign.

Most recently, he focused his message on gun violence and public safety, a pressing issue for voters amid an uptick in shootings in many of the state’s major cities. On Wednesday, he held a joint press conference on the matter with Eric Adams, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City.

c contributed. David Goodman reporting.

[ad_2]