CUO’S FB PAL ‘SHAME’

Advice to blame victim

A Facebook manager who once worked for Andrew Cuomo secretly advised the disgraced ex-governor’s team to “victim shame” a sexual-harassment accuser, according to text messages released this week by the New York Attorney General’s Office.

The Facebook staffer then sought to cover up her involvement in advising the governor, the messages reveal.

“Like I’m nervous about FB knowing I’ve been working on this etc etc.,” Dani Lever, the former Cuomo staffer, wrote in March about her new employer. The same evening as that message, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told Lever he’d gotten her name removed from a news story that was set to come out.

“Rich I could kiss you but it seems like bad form this week,” Lever replied as the governor was embroiled in allegations he’d acted inappropriately toward staffers.

Both were scrambling to help Cuomo respond to the allegations that ultimately led to his resignation. Lever, who has worked for Facebook since August 2020, advised the then-governor’s team for months, according to the messages.

In one instance, Lever helped Cuomo aides decide how to smear Lindsey Boylan, a Cuomo staffer who accused the governor of sexual harassment in December 2020.

“I think we can victim shame on the record,” Lever wrote in a December 2020 message to Azzopardi and Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s No. 2. Lever also helped share Boylan’s personnel records with reporters, according to the attorney general.

Lever’s work for Cuomo even included confronting a former Cuomo staffer for “liking” a tweet from accuser Charlotte Bennett.

“You liked Charlotte’s tweet? Call me,” Lever said in a series of messages to the exstaffer, Andrew Ball, in February. “Was that on purpose?? Can you unlike it.”

Ball then replied “done” and Lever responded with a heart emoji. Ball, who was no longer working for Cuomo, told investigators that he had unliked the tweet because he wanted to preserve his relationship with the governor and his team.

The messages were unearthed as part of Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into sexual misconduct by Cuomo, which ultimately led to his resignation in August.

James has since periodically released material from her investigation in what Cuomo’s camp has sought to portray as a politically motivated bid to boost her own campaign for governor.

This week’s batch of documents also included a 449page transcript of a deposition James’ investigators conducted with Lever in June.