On August 3, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a bombshell 156-page report on Gov. Andrew Cuomo, detailing a lengthy, independent investigation concluding that the Cuomo is guilty of serial sexual harassment. According to James, investigators had found that the governor “sexually harassed current and former New York State employees by engaging in unwelcome and non-consensual touching and making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women” while retaliating against at least one accuser.
Cuomo struck back with a long report compiled by his attorney attempting to defend himself against each accusation, which bizarrely included a number of photos of other high-profile politicians hugging and touching people, including President Joe Biden, who called on Cuomo to resign in the wake of the report. New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has also called on Cuomo to resign. Mariann Wang, attorney for two of Cuomo’s alleged victims, scoffed at Cuomo’s attempts to justify his actions.
“He is being manipulative, as he always has been,” Wang stated. “He is not being accused of being a kindly but gentlemanly boss. And the women who experience his unwanted sexual touching are not fools, as he apparently thinks they are. He is found by independent investigators to have touched women in their intimate body parts and routinely demeaned the women who work with him by treating them as sexual objects. He touched a woman’s breast, another woman’s stomach and the back of her neck and spine, he grabbed multiple women’s backsides or buttocks. These are not charming expressions of affection. They were sexual. He knew that when he did it, and the women experienced this as unwanted sexual touching. He’s been found to have been doing this for years.”
