Andrew Cuomo more cornered than ever. One of eleven women named in an independent investigation accusing the New York State governor of sexual harassment has filed a complaint against her, the first known since the explosive report came out Tuesday, she said. authorities.
“A complaint was filed yesterday” (Thursday), a spokesman for the sheriff’s office in Albany County, the state capital, confirmed to AFP on Friday, without further details. According to several American media, the complaint comes from a woman, anonymized under the name of “executive assistant # 1” in the report, in fact an assistant of his team who deplored various inappropriate and indecent gestures from the end of 2019 by the governor . The latter refuted the accusations.
This complaint paves the way for possible legal action for the governor, who has been called upon by many Democratic allies, including President Joe Biden, to resign, and who is also the subject of proceedings in the New York State Parliament that may lead to his removal. .
Governor of New York State since 2011, reelected in 2014 and 2018, 63-year-old Andrew Cuomo had become a national star at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, thanks to his daily television ads, viewed as rational and reassuring in the midst of a crisis.
According to the report released Tuesday, the aide who filed a complaint lamented “close and intimate hugs” from the governor but also accuses him of having “grabbed him by the rear” several times during hugs. Or during a selfie, and, once again. in November 2020, having “reached under her blouse and grabbed her breast.” “I have never touched someone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, in a filmed statement from his office.
The report stems from an investigation by New York State Attorney Letitia James. If this proceeding was not intended to lead to an indictment against Andrew Cuomo, multiple New York State prosecutors have since claimed that they had opened investigations.