Effort to control fed the flames

Gov. Cuomo’s spokesman reportedly went into damage-control mode when an ex-aide first alleged that he sexually harassed her — calling another former aide who later went public with her own accusations.

Ana Liss told Rochester TV station WROC that she was on her honeymoon in December when Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi phoned her out of the blue.

“I thought at first that it was about work, like maybe it’s an economic-development project that we’re working on here,” said Liss, now Monroe County’s director of planning and development.

“And he said instead, ‘I have kind of an awkward question to ask you, has Lindsey Boylan reached out to you, have you spoken to her?’ ”

Liss — who worked for Cuomo for two years before leaving in 2015 — added: “And I said, ‘No,’ and then we hung up, and I remember thinking, ‘How many other people is he calling? Why is he calling us?’ ”

Liss, 35, said the phone call came two days after Boylan, now a Democratic candidate for Manhattan borough president, first tweeted about being sexually harassed by Cuomo.

Boylan, 36, initially didn’t detail her allegations, but last month she published an online essay that said Cuomo, 63, unexpectedly kissed her “on the lips” in his Manhattan office in 2018 and also said, “Let’s play strip poker” during an October 2017 flight on his official state jet.

That opened the floodgates for five other women — including Liss — to also accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior to date.

During her Monday interview, Liss said Boylan’s initial tweets led her to think, “Wow, that’s dangerous, good luck to you, I would never open my mouth, they’re going to crush you like a bug.”

But after “this really started to blow up,” Liss said, “I thought, ‘You know, maybe it isn’t as dangerous as I thought for Lindsey to speak out.’ ”

Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.