Ex-aide says Cuomo kissed her, suggested strip poker
ALBANY, N.Y. — A former member of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration who previously accused him of sexual harassment offered new details Wednesday, saying he once kissed her on the lips without consent.
Lindsey Boylan said that during her more than three years in the Democrat’s administration, Cuomo “would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,” compared her to one of his rumored ex-girlfriends and once remarked they should play strip poker.
Cuomo’s spokesperson Caitlin Girouard said that all Boylan’s “claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false.”
But the state legislature’s two top leaders criticized Cuomo’s alleged conduct Wednesday as calls grew for an investigation.
Boylan, a Democrat running for Manhattan borough president, made the new allegations in a post on the website Medium more than two months after she first spoke up about alleged mistreatment by Cuomo. At the time, she hadn’t provided details, saying she had “no interest in speaking to journalists.”
But on Wednesday, she attributed her decision to say more to Assembly member Ron Kim levying public accusations of bullying and threats from Cuomo and his aides last week.
She wrote the kiss happened at the end of a oneon-one meeting with Cuomo at his New York City office.
“As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking,” she wrote. “The idea that someone might think I held my high-ranking position because of the Governor’s ‘crush’ on me was more demeaning than the kiss itself.”
Boylan, a former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor, confirmed to The Associated Press that she’d written the blog entry but declined to be interviewed.
When Boylan initially tweeted in December that Cuomo sexually harassed her, the governor denied he did anything inappropriate.
“Look, I fought for and I believe a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion and express issues and concerns that she has,” Cuomo told reporters then. “But it’s just not true.”