Who are the staff members who helped cover up Cuomo’s allegations? – NBC New York

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The New York Attorney General’s scathing report into Governor Andrew Cuomo’s allegations of sexual harassment of nearly a dozen women also points to allegations of a toxic environment of intimidation and retaliation among staff of the governor.

These staff members are facing allegations that they dug dirt on the accusers and that is not all. According to the report, Cuomo’s inner circle was not just the top executive chamber staff, as he also turned to outsiders. The report also states that confidential information about some accusers was shared with these strangers in an attempt to protect the governor, to the detriment of his accusers.

For damage control, the report claims Cuomo turned to others for help, including senior assistant Melissa DeRosa. As Charlotte Bennett went public with her harassment, DeRosa was behind a plan to call in Democratic county leaders in an attempt to secure the governor’s support, according to the report.

The man who made the calls was a friend of Cuomo’s and COVID vaccine distribution czar Larry Schwartz. Some of the county leaders receiving the calls saw an implicit threat that vaccine deliveries to their county could be on the line if they didn’t line up to offer support.

Schwartz, a longtime councilor with past ties to county officials, said on Wednesday my calls were political, not about vaccines, in which the distribution was formula-based. No link existed and none was discussed.

Another adviser was the governor’s full brother, CNN presenter Chris Cuomo. The report states that Chris was part of a group that regularly received confidential and often privileged information, all without any formal role, duty or obligation to the state.

District attorneys for Manhattan, suburban Westchester and Nassau counties, and the state capital of Albany said they requested investigative documents from the Cuomo sexual harassment investigation. NBC New York’s Melissa Russo reports.

But it is inside the executive offices that many of Cuomo’s accusers have said they felt there was nowhere to go, as Cuomo’s team would have ruled by fear and reprisals.

“It starts with the environment. If you live in a state of fear, humiliation, dehumanization, abuse, sexual harassment is really just one more thing,” Bennet said. “It’s the idea that you can be sexually harassed and you have nowhere to go because the dynamics in the office are so toxic it’s actually just isolated.”

Former aide Lindsay Boylan said the governing team leaked her personal records in a desperate attempt to silence her. The GA report says no one on the Cuomo team seems to have wondered, even for a moment, whether any of the governor’s interactions with Ms Boylan could have been intrusive and offensive, and that the objective was to protect and attack.

Many longtime friends and opponents of Governor Cuomo crowded in, calling on him to step down following the attorney general’s report that corroborated allegations of sexual harassment by nearly a dozen women. NBC New York’s Andrew Siff, Melissa Russo and Chris Glorioso have team coverage.

In an 85-page rebuttal, Cuomo’s lawyer Rita Glavin said in part that Boylan was politically motivated. She said the former assistant threatened retaliation against the governor while in the middle of a primary campaign because she mistakenly believed the governor had issued an executive order aimed at harming her campaign.

The report also focused on one member of Cuomos’ legal team: Special Counsel Judy Mogul. She is partly criticized for not reacting properly to Bennett’s complaint, accused of “not advising Bennett how to file a formal complaint, of never having come forward to report the harassment complaint to the PR department. employees as required, or never telling Bennett that she would be protected from retaliation, ”the report said.

Attorney General Letitia James bluntly summed up the conduct of the Governor’s Executive Office: “Governor Cuomo’s administration has fostered a toxic workplace.”

Timeline of the investigation and allegations against Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo denied any wrongdoing on Tuesday. He made no public appearances on Wednesday and made no further statements. And Cuomos’ attorney’s report says the attorney general’s report is unfair, with comments taken out of context and they ignored the governor’s testimony and substantial corroborating evidence.

Another longtime Cuomo ally named in the report is former special adviser Alphonso David. He was reportedly consulted by Cuomo’s team as some accusations swirled, but on Tuesday night he tweeted after reading James’ devastating report, saying the governor should step down.

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