“Sure, @NYGovCuomo sexually harassed me for years. Many noticed it, and watched.” So mentioned Lindsey Boylan, a candidate for Manhattan borough
“Sure, @NYGovCuomo sexually harassed me for years. Many noticed it, and watched.”
So mentioned Lindsey Boylan, a candidate for Manhattan borough president and former adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a tweet thread Sunday morning.
Boylan, who seems to have labored for the governor’s workplace from 2015 to 2018, supplied few specifics within the thread and acknowledged that she has “little interest in speaking to journalists” (Boylan additionally has not responded to Vox’s request for remark). However she did say, “I may by no means anticipate what to anticipate: would I be grilled on my work (which was excellent) or harassed about my appears to be like. Or wouldn’t it be each in the identical dialog?”
The governor’s workplace has denied the allegation. “There may be merely no fact to those claims,” Caitlin Girouard, the governor’s press secretary, mentioned in an e-mail to Vox on Monday.
The report comes at a time of intense scrutiny for Cuomo, as he manages rising coronavirus infections and the vaccine rollout in his state. The governor has been among the many most seen figures within the pandemic, gaining a faithful following for his straight-talking information conferences at a time when the president was denying actuality, and even writing a e book about it known as American Disaster. He’s additionally reportedly been mentioned as a attainable lawyer common within the administration of President-elect Joe Biden.
However Boylan says that will be a mistake, tweeting, “There are fewer issues extra scary than giving this man, who exists with out ethics, much more management.”
Her allegation may complicate his political future. It additionally raises new questions concerning the working setting inside New York state authorities, which has seen a number of officers accused of harassment or different misconduct lately.
Cuomo isn’t the one New York official to be the topic of current harassment allegations
Boylan, 36, labored for the governor’s workplace as a deputy secretary of financial improvement and a particular adviser to the governor, in response to LinkedIn. Since her departure, she has been a public critic of the governor and his workplace, in response to the New York Instances. In 2019, for instance, she known as into query the workplace’s help for working dad and mom. She additionally described her expertise working there as “past poisonous” and “endlessly dispiriting.”
And now Boylan has gone public with a extra particular report: that Cuomo sexually harassed her over a interval of years. Although she supplied few particulars, she did describe her frustration with the expertise and others’ inaction. “Not realizing what to anticipate” was “essentially the most upsetting half apart from realizing that nobody would do a rattling factor even after they noticed it,” Boylan tweeted.
“And I *know* I’m not the one girl,” she added.
No different ladies seem to have but come ahead with public allegations of harassment by Cuomo. However different New York State officers and workers have been the topic of such studies lately. In 2017, for instance, a former state worker reported that Sam Hoyt, who had not too long ago resigned from his job as a senior-level state official, had sexually harassed and assaulted her (Hoyt denied the allegations however mentioned the 2 had a consensual relationship). And in 2018, New York Legal professional Common Eric Schneiderman resigned after the New Yorker reported that 4 ladies had accused him of bodily abuse.
Cuomo has bristled up to now when requested if the New York state authorities has an issue with harassment, as Dana Rubinstein and Jesse McKinley be aware on the Instances. When requested by reporter Karen DeWitt about harassment in state authorities within the wake of the Hoyt allegations, the governor responded, “While you say it’s ‘state authorities,’ you do a disservice to ladies, with all due respect, despite the fact that you’re a girl.”
“It’s not authorities, it’s society,” he added. “It’s not only one individual in a single space.”
The allegation may complicate Cuomo’s political future
Now the allegations about New York authorities go proper to the highest. And it’s coming at a time when Cuomo’s political profession is at a crossroads.
New York state doesn’t have time period limits, and Cuomo has mentioned he’ll search reelection in 2022. However he’s additionally been mentioned as a candidate for larger workplace (despite the fact that he ended up nixing a run for president in 2020). That’s very true since his dealing with of the pandemic earned him factors with New Yorkers and People nationwide.
Cuomo has gained fame for his gruff information conferences saying Covid-19 charges and restrictions, his dad jokes about not being “a turkey” by flouting pandemic guidelines on Thanksgiving, and his bizarre style in posters. His e book about dealing with Covid-19 in New York was criticized by some who questioned his choice to launch it in October with the pandemic very a lot ongoing, however was additionally a New York Instances bestseller. He’s additionally gained the love of some liberals by sparring with President Trump.
Given all this, it’s not shocking that he’s reportedly being thought of for a task within the Biden administration. However Cuomo can be going through a wintertime coronavirus surge in New York, which may drive a shutdown in New York Metropolis in a matter of weeks — and, doubtlessly, name his pandemic success into doubt. And now, the governor who signed high-profile anti-harassment laws in 2018 is going through a harassment allegation himself.
Although Cuomo denies the allegation, it’s positive to drive, if nothing else, added scrutiny into his previous and the tradition of the federal government he runs.
“I’m offended to be put on this scenario in any respect. That as a result of I’m a girl, I can work laborious my complete life to higher myself and assist others and but nonetheless fall sufferer as numerous ladies over generations have,” Boylan tweeted. “I hate that some males, like @NYGovCuomo abuse their energy.”