IOPList.Org

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigns
after sexual harassment allegations


Facing an impeachment inquiry, the governor will now leave office in 14 days.


Aug. 10, 2021, 11:06 AM CDT /
Updated Aug. 10, 2021, 11:25 AM CDT

By Dareh Gregorian and Teaganne Finn



New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday he was resigning after a
withering report from the state’s attorney general alleged he had sexually
harassed multiple women, heading off impeachment proceedings.

"And I think that given the circumstances the best way I can help now is if I
step aside and let government get back to government, and therefore that is
what I'll do, because I work for you, and doing the right thing, is doing the
right thing for you," Cuomo said.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, will serve the rest of his term, and will be
the state's first female governor.

"It is a matter of life and death. Government operations and wasting energy
on distraction is the last thing government should be," Cuomo said. "I cannot
be the cause. New York tough means New York loving. And I love New York and
I love you. Everything I have ever done has been motivated by that love and
I would never want to be unhelpful in any way."

Facing impeachment proceedings, which he admitted he would be unable to
counter, Cuomo, 63, announced he'll leave office in 14 days while continuing
to insist that he did nothing wrong.

Speaking to his three daughters, Cuomo said, "I want them to know from the
bottom of my heart that I never did and I never would intentionally disrespect
a woman, treat any woman differently than I would want them treated and
that is the God's honest truth."

"Your dad made mistakes. And he apologized, and he learned from it and
that's what life is all about."

After he was first hit with sexual harassment allegations earlier this year, Cuomo
ignored bipartisan demands that he resign, and predicted the investigation he
authorized state Attorney General Letitia James to carry out would exonerate
him. Instead, the report alleged that he'd harassed 11 women — nine of whom
were state employees — and subjected some of them to unwelcome touching
and groping. His office also retaliated against one of the women after she spoke
out about how she was treated, the report alleged.

In the wake of the report, the state Assembly had begun to organize impeachment
proceedings. Local law enforcement officials also announced they were investigating
whether criminal charges were appropriate.

That reputation took a major blow in January, when James's office issued a report
that found that the state Health Department had underreported the Covid-19 death
toll in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. A top Cuomo aide was then caught
on tape telling Democratic legislators that the administration took months to release
the full data about nursing home residents in part because of worries that the
information was "going to be used against us" by the Trump administration.

The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn and the FBI began a preliminary investigation into how
the Cuomo administration handled the data earlier this year.

Cuomo was then accused in mid-February of having threatened to "destroy" a
Democratic lawmaker who alleged that the administration "covered up" the nursing
home numbers. Cuomo denied there had been any cover-up.

That was followed by a string of sexual harassment allegations, including by some
former aides. The first to speak out was Lindsey Boylan, who wrote an essay on the
website Medium which described being subjected to "pervasive harassment" in her
years of working for the governor.

Boylan said Cuomo made numerous inappropriate comments to her in front of other
people, including once asking her to play "strip poker," and said he once kissed her
on the lips when they were alone.

Cuomo's office called Boylan's claims "quite simply false," but they led to numerous
other women stepping forward to say they'd been mistreated and to a flood of
Democratic lawmakers calling for his resignation, including the vast majority of
New York's congressional delegation.

Fighting for his political survival, Cuomo authorized James to investigate the harassment
claims and predicted the probe would exonerate him — but it wound up substantiating
all the claims against him in a blistering 165-page report.

In one case, he allegedly groped an executive assistant under her shirt, and in another,
he fondled a state trooper, the report alleged. The governor "sexually harassed a number
of current and former New York State employees by, among other things, engaging in
unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive
comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment
for women," the report alleged.

Shortly after the report's release, Cuomo maintained "I never touched anyone
inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances," and vowed to focus on his job.

Cuomo intended to run for a fourth term, a feat his three-term governor father, the
late Mario Cuomo, was not able to achieve.





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