© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo visits vaccination site in Brooklyn
By Gabriella Borter
(Reuters) – New York’s top prosecutor rejected a proposal by Governor Andrew Cuomo for her to pick a lawyer to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against him, after Cuomo’s office backtracked on Sunday on a plan to choose its own investigator.
State Attorney General Letitia James said it was essential that Cuomo’s administration instead formally refer the matter to her office for investigation, which would give her subpoena power and ensure an impartial probe.
Cuomo, one of the nation’s most well-known Democratic politicians whose popularity soared during the early months of the pandemic, has been accused by two former aides of sexual misconduct, sparking criticism from fellow Democrats that ranged from calls for his resignation to appeals for an independent investigation into his behavior.
Responding to the latest allegations that emerged on Saturday, the governor denied making any sexual advances and initially ordered what he said would be a “full and thorough outside review” led by a former federal judge, Barbara Jones.
But following sharp rebukes from Democrats, Cuomo reversed that decision on Sunday and said he had asked James and Janet DiFiore, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, to select an independent lawyer to conduct a thorough review and issue a public report.
James said instead that the governor needed to make an official referral to her office under the state’s executive law. Only a referral could enable “an investigation with real teeth,” a spokesman for James said.
“To clarify, I do not accept the governor’s proposal,” James said in a statement. “The governor must provide this referral so an independent investigation with subpoena power can be conducted.”
A representative for Cuomo did not immediately comment on the attorney general’s request for a referral.
‘PAINFUL TO READ’
The choice by Cuomo’s office of a former judge to lead the investigation had failed to satisfy leading Democratic figures including U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who said she found the accounts of Cuomo’s former aides Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett “extremely serious and painful to read.”
There were also demands for an independent probe from several other Democrats. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told CNN’s State of the Union that President Joe Biden supported such an investigation. Others, including New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi and New York City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, went further, echoing Republican calls for Cuomo to resign.
In the latest misconduct allegations, Bennett, who worked for the governor as an executive assistant and policy advisor for nearly two years until November 2020, told the New York Times that he had asked her about her sex life, including whether she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had ever had sex with older men.
Her account was published days after Boylan, another former aide, wrote in an online essay that the governor made several “inappropriate gestures” toward her while she worked for the state government from 2015 to 2018, including sending her a rose on Valentine’s Day and kissing her on the mouth.
Cuomo has denied wrongdoing in both cases. Reuters could not independently verify the women’s accounts. Attempts to reach both women have been unsuccessful.
Cuomo rose to national prominence for his daily televised briefings early on during the coronavirus pandemic, when New York was the epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States.
The allegations of sexual misconduct follow a report issued in January by James’ office that cast doubt on his administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis in nursing homes. It said the state health department significantly undercounted the death toll and implemented policies that may have contributed to it.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday that there now needed to be two independent investigations, one into Cuomo’s conduct and another into the nursing home deaths.
“Questions of this magnitude cannot hang over the heads of New Yorkers as we fight off a pandemic and economic crisis,” de Blasio said in a statement.
