NY GOVERNOR’S ACCUSER APPEARS ON TELEVISION, SAYS SHE FEARED FOR HER LIFE

ALBANY, US: An aide who accused New York governor Andrew Cuomo of groping her said in her first televised interview that she was initially afraid to identify herself because she was worried the governor’s “enablers” would destroy her if she spoke up.

Brittany Commisso, an executive assistant to Cuomo, detailed her interactions with the Democrat in a joint interview with CBS and The Times Union of Albany that was broadcast on Monday as a key legislative committee met to discuss possible impeachment hearings.

Commisso has spoken out before, first in an anonymous interview with The Times Union last winter, and then as one of 11 women who said they were sexually harassed by Cuomo whose allegations were detailed in a report by the state attorney general’s office last week. She was also the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Cuomo, giving a report to the county sheriff on Thursday.

But until now, the public hadn’t heard her tell her own story. “I was afraid that if I had to come forward and revealed my name, that the governor and his enablers, I like to call them, would viciously attack me, would smear my name, as I had seen and heard them do before to people,” said Commisso, who is now 32.

She said she also wanted to protect her daughter, but now feels speaking out shows her that “she has a voice”. “I never want her to be afraid to speak,” Commisso said.

The interview aired as Cuomo faces another day under fire. Scores of Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have urged Cuomo to leave office.