AG urged to decry Cuomo probe
Lawyer for accuser: James should reject “shadow” effort
The attorney for one of at least seven women who have accused Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment is urging state Attorney General Letitia James to denounce a separate investigation being conducted by the governor’s administration of another woman’s allegations that Cuomo groped her late last year at the Executive Mansion.
The separate investigation was reported by the Times Union last week. Beth Garvey, the governor’s acting counsel, issued a statement after that story was published on Wednesday clarifying that the matter had been referred to the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations.
“We fully informed the (attorney general’s) office of the required process with this type of allegation and they said to follow it,” Garvey said. “The matter was referred to GOER (Governor’s Office of Employee Relations), and (we) informed local law enforcement, and that is the full extent of the action.”
Days earlier, a senior administration official confirmed that the governor’s administration will be conducting an investigation of the matter despite an ongoing inquiry by the attorney general’s office.
The attorney general’s probe was authorized in a referral letter from Garvey to James on March 1.
“We have our own inquiries ongoing,” a senior aide to the governor told the Times Union on March 13. “We have an obligation to investigate any claim of sexual harassment. And we, after reporting (the female aide’s allegations) to the (attorney general), were directed to continue our own inquiry. … So there are multiple inquiries.”
A source in the attorney general’s office with knowledge of the matter last week denied that anyone from their office had “directed” the governor’s office to conduct a parallel inquiry.
Debra Katz, an attorney for Charlotte Bennett, a former Cuomo aide who last year complained to administration officials that the governor appeared to be grooming her for a sexual relationship, said James should condemn any parallel investigation by the administration. Katz characterized it as a “deliberate attempt” to interfere in the independent probe and also questioned the administration’s decision to provide private counsel to any staff members interviewed by the attorney general’s inquiry team.
“The Executive Chamber’s decision to provide staffers with in-house attorneys to advise them and accompany them to interviews will have a chilling effect on potential witnesses or other accusers who wish to come forward, but fear jobrelated retaliation if they tell the investigators about the governor’s sexual harassing behavior and the misconduct of those around him,” Katz wrote in the letter released Monday. “Witnesses with whom I have spoken fear retaliation if they refuse to cooperate with the Executive Chamber’s lawyers and feel constrained from sharing information about the governor’s misconduct and the toxic and sexually hostile work environment in which they have been forced to work with the governor’s lawyers present.”
The attorney for the woman who contends that Cuomo had groped her also criticized the decision by the governor’s office to refer the matter to GOER. The woman has not filed a formal complaint, and her allegations were revealed when she disclosed the matter to two co-workers earlier this month after Cuomo spoke at a news conference saying he had never touched women “inappropriately.”
“It’s absurd. Why would you be doing that?” said the attorney for the woman who has accused Cuomo of groping her. “It’s not appropriate, and obviously we’re concerned with the ramifications and the effect on witnesses and the quest for the truth.”
He characterized it as a “shadow investigation.”
Previously, the governor’s administration has distanced itself from GOER, contending it is a separate office that conducts sexual harassment inquiries and other employee investigations without involvement from the Executive Chamber. Last June, the governor’s office handled Bennett’s allegations without referring the matter to GOER.