“These have been hugs with the intention of getting some private sexual satisfaction out of,” she mentioned. “Then they began to be hugs with kiss
“These have been hugs with the intention of getting some private sexual satisfaction out of,” she mentioned. “Then they began to be hugs with kisses on the cheek. After which there was — at one level — a hug, after which when he went to go kiss me on the cheek, he shortly turned his head, and he kissed me on the lips.”
Commisso additionally mentioned Cuomo groped her twice. The primary alleged incident occurred on the govt mansion on New Yr’s Eve 2019, when she visited the governor’s official residence to assist him put together his State of the State deal with.
“I wasn’t there late. I did my last edit,” Commisso mentioned. “And whereas I used to be upstairs within the workplace, the governor mentioned, ‘Why don’t we take a selfie?’
“I then felt — whereas taking the selfie — his hand go down my again, onto my butt, and he began rubbing it,” she mentioned. “Not sliding it. Not shortly brushing over it. Rubbing my butt.”
Commisso mentioned that whereas she was taking the selfie along with her telephone, she turned “so nervous” that her arms “have been clearly shaking, and a variety of the images that I used to be snapping have been fully blurry.”
The governor was unhappy with the images, she mentioned, and he instructed: “Why don’t we go sit on the sofa, and we will take a greater one?” They then moved to the sofa to take extra images, she mentioned.
The second alleged groping incident additionally came about on the govt mansion in November, Commisso mentioned.
“He will get up, and he goes to present me a hug,” she mentioned. “And I might inform instantly when he hugged me, it was in a — most likely probably the most sexually aggressive method than any of the opposite hugs that he had given me.”
“It was then that I mentioned, ‘Governor’ — my phrases have been, ‘You’re going to get us in hassle,’” Commisso mentioned.
“After I mentioned that, he walked over, shut the door so laborious, to the purpose the place I believed, for certain, somebody downstairs should suppose — they have to suppose, in the event that they heard that, ‘What’s going on?’”
Commisso mentioned Cuomo then “got here again to me, and that’s when he put his hand down my shirt and cupped my breast over my bra.”
Commisso mentioned she remembered “trying down, seeing his hand — which is a big hand — [and] pondering to myself, ‘Oh, my God, that is occurring.’ It occurred so fast. He didn’t say something. After I stopped it, he simply pulled away and walked away.”
The Albany County Sheriff’s Workplace introduced Friday {that a} lady — now publicly recognized as Commisso — had filed a prison criticism in opposition to Cuomo with the division, including to the governor’s rising listing of authorized troubles associated to sexual harassment. Meeting Speaker Carl Heastie, whose chamber is gearing up towards probably impeaching Cuomo, introduced the subsequent steps in its investigation into the governor and mentioned that its “objective is now to convey this matter to a conclusion with all due haste.“
“It was the suitable factor to do. The governor must be held accountable,” Commisso mentioned. Cuomo is now going through at the very least 4 potential prison investigations by district attorneys in Manhattan and Albany, Nassau and Westchester counties.
Commisso’s interview aired simply hours after Melissa DeRosa — the secretary to the governor, New York’s highest-ranking unelected official and Cuomo’s most public-facing loyalist — confirmed her resignation on Sunday night. The interview additionally comes because the state Legislature is predicted to take a brand new step in its impeachment probe of the governor.
Cuomo‘s exterior lawyer, Rita Glavin, denied Commisso‘s accusations in an interview Monday afternoon on MSNBC. Glavin each denied the substance of Commisso‘s account, saying “that didn’t occur,” and referred to as into query the accuracy of her testimony.
“With respect to Brittany Commisso, it simply didn’t occur,“ Glavin mentioned.
Glavin additionally tried to distinguish between the 11 ladies detailed within the lawyer basic‘s report, noting that a number of of them weren’t state workers or that their allegations didn’t rise to the severity of that alleged by folks like Commisso.
“I’ve been listening to it time and again: ‘It‘s 11 ladies,‘“Glavin mentioned. “They‘re qualitatively totally different.“
Within the 168-page report launched final week by the state lawyer basic’s workplace, Commisso is recognized as “Government Assistant #1.” Investigators decided that Cuomo “engaged in a sample of inappropriate conduct” with Commisso that started in roughly late 2019.
In response to the report’s findings, Cuomo’s harassment of Commisso included “shut and intimate hugs”; “kisses on the cheeks, brow, and at the very least one kiss on the lips”; “touching and grabbing of [Commisso’s] butt throughout hugs and, on one event, whereas taking selfies with him”; and “feedback and jokes by [Cuomo] about [Commisso’s] private life and relationships.”
These inappropriate remarks by the governor included “calling [Commisso] and one other assistant ‘mingle mamas,’” “inquiring a number of occasions about whether or not she had cheated or would cheat on her husband,” and “asking her to assist discover him a girlfriend,” in accordance with the report.
The investigators additionally corroborated Commisso’s declare that — in a November incident on the govt mansion — Cuomo engaged in “one other shut hug” with Commisso, throughout which he “reached below her shirt and grabbed her breast.”
Cuomo denied the conclusions of the state lawyer basic’s report final week in a 14-minute, pre-taped video that sidestepped investigators’ most devastating findings and featured photographs of him publicly embracing a variety of officers and constituents.
The governor additionally inspired viewers to learn an 85-page “place assertion” ready by his private lawyer, Rita Glavin, that included greater than two dozen images of distinguished politicians embracing and kissing folks.
In an interview on Saturday that echoed her argument Monday to MSNBC, Glavin accused Commisso of mendacity, arguing that Commisso’s claims didn’t “move muster” with a earlier interview she participated in with The Instances Union in April.
“There are details they acquired improper — vital details, notably with respect to the lady who’s claiming she was assaulted,” Glavin informed CNN. “She most definitely was not. There was proof that they collected and that they ignored and omitted placing of their report. They usually additionally credited those that they know lied and had motives to lie.”
Lindsey Boylan, the primary lady to publicly accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, revealed a Medium submit Monday after the Commisso interview aired, saying the governor “continues to abuse” the ladies who’ve come ahead with allegations.
“As lately as Saturday, the Governor despatched his assault canine on nationwide tv to accuse me of ‘mendacity,’” Boylan mentioned. “He’s gaslighting and revictimizing us. He’s displaying everybody what occurs to ladies once they communicate up about harassment and abuse within the office.”
Boylan wrote that she usually thinks about how shut she was to turning into “the villain of this story,” condemning the Cuomo administration for utilizing official authorities channels to situation statements and maintain information conferences to “unfold lies.”
“The common chorus of congratulations for telling ‘our truths’ doesn’t convey me a lot consolation,” she mentioned. “In some methods, it merely confirms that ladies are believed solely when an investigative report is made public and the proof is overwhelming,” Boylan mentioned. “It’s a disgrace that the establishments we uphold as our protectors and advocates — authorities, political leaders, the media, victims’ and girls’s rights organizations — nonetheless don’t consider us when a robust man is concerned.”
“It’s not ‘our fact,’” she added. “It’s the fact.”
Boylan’s lawyer has mentioned she plans to sue Cuomo over alleged retaliation in opposition to her after she spoke out in February. The previous Cuomo aide re-upped her intentions to sue in Monday‘s submit.
Nick Niedzwiadek and Myah Ward contributed to this report.