Current aide accuses Cuomo of misconduct
ALBANY, N.Y. — A woman who works in the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he looked down her shirt and made suggestive remarks to her and another aide, according to a report published Friday.
Alyssa McGrath told the New York Times that Cuomo called her beautiful in Italian, referring to her and her female colleague as “mingle mamas,” asked why she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring and inquired about her divorce.
“He has a way of making you feel very comfortable around him, almost like you’re his friend,” McGrath told the newspaper. “But then you walk away from the encounter or conversation, in your head going, ‘I can’t believe I just had that interaction with the governor of New York.’ ”
McGrath is the first current aide to join mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against Cuomo. His behavior is the subject of an investigation by the state’s attorney general and a separate impeachment investigation by the New York Assembly.
Cuomo, a Democrat, has denied the allegations. A lawyer for him told the New York Times that Cuomo has indeed used Italian phrases like “ciao bella,” which means “hello beautiful” in Italian, and greeted men and women alike with hugs and a kiss.
“None of this is remarkable, although it may be old-fashioned,” lawyer Rita Glavin said. “He has made clear that he has never made inappropriate advances or inappropriately touched anyone.”
McGrath described a dictation session when she caught him gazing at her.
“I put my head down waiting for him to start speaking, and he didn’t start speaking,” she said. “So I looked up to see what was going on. And he was blatantly looking down my shirt.”
She said Cuomo then asked “What’s on your necklace?”
Assembly Democratic Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday said the body’s impeachment investigation will examine “all credible allegations” against the governor, including whether he used his office to sexually harass or assault employees.
Other subjects under investigation, Heastie said, will include whether Cuomo withheld information on COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes from the public, and his administration’s handling of safety concerns at a newly constructed bridge over the Hudson River.
“Your charge is to determine whether evidence exists to support a finding that the governor has engaged in conduct, as governor, that violates the laws of the State of New York and whether such violations constitute serious and corrupt conduct in office that may justify articles of impeachment,” Heastie wrote in a Friday letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Lavine.