A sixth woman has come forward accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of inappropriate conduct, reports The Albany Times Union.
The woman, a female member of Cuomo’s staff, told associates that Cuomo touched her inappropriately last year during an encounter at the governor’s mansion. The woman has not filed a formal complaint, though other employees in the Executive Chamber reported the allegations to the governor’s counsel.
The Times Union is withholding her name until she can be reached for comment.
Cuomo, who is being investigated for the nursing home scandal, told reporters Tuesday he was not aware of the allegations.
"First, I’m not aware of any other claim," he said. "As I said last week, this is very simple, I never touched anyone inappropriately … no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable. Obviously, there are people who said after the fact that I made them uncomfortable."
The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal over the weekend reported two additional claims of inappropriate behavior by Cuomo, a third-term Democrat.
Ana Liss, a former police and operations aide, said Cuomo asked her if she had a boyfriend, called her sweetheart, touched her on her lower back at a reception, and once kissed her hand when she rose from her desk.
“For me, there was one occasion where I was asked if I had a boyfriend by the governor. Those interactions, I thought at the time, were harmless flirtations and ‘That’s how he is.’ Other women went along with it and reacted kindly and bashful to that kind of treatment,” Liss told WROC in Rochester.
The other women who have made accusations include Lindsey Boylan, Charlotte Bennett, Anna Ruch and Karen Hinton.
Boylan and Bennett are former aides to Cuomo. Boylan, 36, accused the governor of "sexual harassment and bullying" while she worked for him. Bennett, 25, claimed Cuomo asked her questions about her sex life and whether she had sex with older men.
"I thought, he's trying to sleep with me," she told CBS in an interview. "The governor is trying to sleep with me. And I'm deeply uncomfortable and I have to get out of this room as soon as possible."
Ruch, 33, said Cuomo put his hands on her lower back at a wedding in 2019, then on her cheeks and asked to kiss her. Hinton, a former press aide, said the governor asked her to his "dimly lit" hotel room in 2000 following a work event. Cuomo, then Bill Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, embraced her and when she tried to pull away he pulled her back into the embrace before she left.
The governor said he’ll let state Attorney General Letitia James complete her investigation and urged others to wait before passing judgment.
Cuomo is facing calls for his resignation over the nursing home scandal and sexual harassment allegations. James is leading investigations into both issues.
The New York Times, citing documents and interviews with six people with direct knowledge of the discussions who requested anonymity, reported that some of Cuomo's senior aides were involved in rewriting the report to lower the death toll in nursing homes. The final report said 6,432 nursing home residents died of the virus, compared with nearly 10,000 in the initial unpublished report.
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