Ex-aide details claims against Gov. Cuomo

A former aide ALBANY, N.Y. — to Gov. Andrew Cuomo published a lengthy essay on Wednesday morning accusing the governor of sexual harassment and outlining several unsettling episodes, including an unsolicited kiss in his Manhattan office.

The aide, Lindsey Boylan, described several years of uncomfortable interactions with Cuomo, a thirdterm Democrat, including an invitation to play strip poker on a government airplane and an email from another top aide suggesting that the governor thought she was a “better looking sister” of another woman.

Boylan, who worked for the state’s economic development agency at the time, published that email from December 2016, and said the governor began calling her the other woman’s name in professional settings, an experience she described as “degrading.”

Boylan, who is running for Manhattan borough president, first publicly accused the governor of sexual harassment in December, in a series of remarks on Twitter. At the time, Boylan did not speak to the media, offer details of the alleged harassment or provide corroboration.

On Wednesday, however, Boylan wrote that she had told her husband and mother of her concerns about the governor. She also offered new details, including an incident in 2018 when she said that she and Cuomo were alone in his Manhattan 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,” Boylan wrote. “I was in shock, but I kept walking.”

When Boylan first went public in December, the governor vehemently denied the accusations.