Serious charges, serious probe
Former Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett’s interview on CBS News was disturbing and hard to watch. The 25-year-old recounted how the 63-year-old governor asked her intimate, inappropriate questions about her sex life, which she interpreted as him trying to sleep with her. While Gov. Cuomo has a different, more benign memory of the conversations, the search for the truth means that Bennett needs also to talk not just on national TV, but in private to the independent investigators hired by Attorney General Tish James. Their judgment, in a written report to be publicly released, must assess as best as possible if any wrongdoing occurred, intentional or otherwise, including breaches of the state’s sexual harassment law, which Cuomo strengthened in 2019. And as Bennett made known her discomfort at the time, the probers have to examine if the governor’s office properly followed its own sexual harassment investigation guidelines in addressing her complaints.
Cuomo has pledged full and complete cooperation, a directive that must apply to everyone currently and formerly in the executive chamber. The same procedures must be followed in reviewing sexual harassment allegations made by another ex-aide, Lindsey Boylan, who tweeted her charges against Cuomo in December. That part of the investigation should also determine if Boylan’s confidential government personnel records were then improperly leaked in retaliation, and if so, by whom.
Cuomo is in deep political water, not just from these charges, but also from his administration’s self-made mess in trying to delay release of data of COVID nursing home deaths. His future depends on the independent investigator’s report that may substantiate the charges of Bennett and Boylan or may find no wrongdoing by him. That report will either be a sinking stone or a life vest for Cuomo.
While standards for what’s considered appropriate workplace behavior may have shifted dramatically in recent years, the governor must lead by example and follow the laws he himself championed. Let the truth be out.