HOW LOW CAN CUO GO?
Accuser: Gov shut door and grabbed my breast
An anonymous accuser of Gov. Cuomo leveled the most serious allegations yet — that he called her into his office, hugged her, then reached under her blouse to grab one of her breasts.
The aide who accused Gov. Cuomo of groping her has broken her silence to provide a vivid account of the alleged incident — claiming he “pulled me close” and stuck his hand under her blouse.
In her first public interview, the unidentified woman told the Albany Times Union in a story published Wednesday that she was summoned to the Executive Mansion to help Cuomo with his cellphone on a November weekday.
When she entered his secondfloor office, she said, Cuomo came out from behind the desk and aggressively embraced her in what she described as an overtly sexual manner “that wasn’t just a hug.”
“He went for it and I kind of like was, ‘Oh, the door is right there,’ ” she said.
The woman said she quietly freaked out while considering how to respond.
“I said, ‘You’re going to get us in trouble,’ ” she said.
“I didn’t know what else to say . . . it was pretty much like ‘What are you doing?’ That’s when he slammed the door. He said, ‘I don’t care.’ ”
Although the sound of the door was loud enough that Cuomo’s staff most likely wondered what was going on, he wasn’t deterred, she said.
“He came right back and he pulled me close and all I remember is seeing his hand, his big hand,” she said.
“I remember looking down like, ‘Holy s--t.’ ”
Cuomo, 63, then reached under her blouse and grabbed her breast over her bra, she said.
“I was just so confused and so taken aback by it . . . He never said anything, which was odd,” she said. “That was the first blatant move.”
She also said she believed Cuomo tried to groom her for a relationship over the past two years through inappropriate behavior that included tight hugs and kisses on the cheek.
“It was never in front of anybody,” she said. “He made sure that it was either at the mansion or, if it was at the Capitol, that no one was around.”
The woman made her accusations during a lengthy interview last week, the Times Union said.
An account of the alleged incident was previously made public last month by a person with direct knowledge of the woman’s claims, the Times Union said at the time.
And a co-worker, Alyssa McGrath, 33, told The New York Times later last month that the woman confided in her about the incident and that Cuomo “told [the accuser] specifically not to tell me.”
McGrath, too, accused Cuomo of sexually harassing her by, among other allegations, looking down her blouse and in Italian calling her beautiful.
State officials referred the alleged groping incident to the Albany Police Department for potential investigation and cops “reached out to the victim’s attorney and offered up any other police assistance,” a police spokesman said at the time.
It was unclear Wednesday if the woman has spoken with cops or intends to press charges.
Under state law, “forcible touching” of another person’s “intimate parts” to gratify “sexual desire” or to degrade or abuse the victim is a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
The allegations are the most serious made to date against Cuomo, who has been accused of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by a series of women, including current and former aides.
Cuomo has repeatedly insisted that he “never touched anyone inappropriately.”
The various accusations against him are under investigation by outside lawyers hired by state Attorney General Letitia James and are also part of an impeachment probe by the state Assembly’s Judiciary Committee.
The alleged groping victim was interviewed in New York City by James’ outside investigators on March 12, the Times Union said, citing a person briefed on the matter.
The Times Union said it contacted Cuomo’s office about the woman’s allegations late Tuesday and his lawyer, Rita Glavin, didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.