A former aide of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo became the third woman to accuse him of inappropriate behavior as she recounted unwanted advances at the workplace, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ana Liss, Cuomo’s policy and operations aide from 2013 to 2015, told the newspaper that the incidents took place during her first year at their offices in state capital Albany. She added that they were “not appropriate, really, in any setting,” the paper said.
She said he has asked her if she had a boyfriend, called her sweetheart, touched her on her lower back at a reception and even kissed her hand when she got up from her desk, the paper said. She said that she initially saw Cuomo’s conduct as harmless flirtation but viewed it as patronizing and diminishing over time, the Journal said.
Cuomo’s senior adviser Rich Azzopardi said in response to the paper that “reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures.”
“At the public open-house mansion reception, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of pictures,” Azzopardi added. “That’s what people in politics do.”
Two more aides to Andrew Cuomo have left their jobs as the New York governor faces dual scandals over sexual harassment claims and accusations his administration covered up Covid deaths at nursing homes.
Press secretary Caitlin Girouard and interim policy adviser Erin Hammond have left, the administration said on Friday. The two aides are the latest staffers to leave the governor’s office following the scandals, which have prompted bipartisan calls for him to resign.
Cuomo apologized on Wednesday for making women who worked for him “uncomfortable” but said he wouldn’t step down from office.
He was also asked by the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, to preserve all records and communications that could be relevant in the investigation of claims by women who have accused him of sexual harassment.
James, who earlier this week won a standoff with Cuomo to secure full control over the potentially explosive probe, sent the governor’s office a so-called document-preservation notice on Friday, according to the attorney general’s spokeswoman, Delaney Kempner.
Bernie Kerik to Newsmax TV: Stop Handcuffing the PoliceAs the week wrapped up, the New York legislature approved a bill to repeal pandemic-era emergency powers afforded to the scandal-plagued governor.
The measure, which received final passage from the Assembly on Friday evening, revokes temporary powers given to Cuomo in March that allowed him to supersede the legislature, as well as local laws, to issue hundreds of sweeping emergency directives on everything from closing businesses and schools to mandating the use of masks. The governor is expected to sign the measure after saying he helped negotiate it.
Source: Newmax
