NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee on Monday released a 63-page report outlining its findings on several allegations against disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The report concluded that Cuomo "engaged in multiple instances of sexual harassment, including by creating a hostile work environment and engaging in sexual misconduct."
It included claims from a 12th woman, Sherry Vill, whose allegations were not included in the attorney general's report that found Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women. Vill claimed the governor held her face and kissed her on the cheek “in a very aggressive manner,” making her feel “manhandled” during a visit to her home in Greece, New York to survey storm damage in May 2017.
It also found that the former governor "utilized state resources and property, including work by Executive Chamber staff, to write, publish and promote his book — a project for which he was guaranteed at least $5.2 million in personal profit" and that Cuomo "was not fully transparent regarding the number of nursing home residents who died as a result of COVID-19."
READ THE FULL REPORT:
"This has been a profoundly sad chapter in New York's history. I commend Chairman Charles Lavine, the members of the Judiciary Committee and the team at Davis Polk for their hard work and diligence in completing this investigation," said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. "I also want to acknowledge everyone who participated in all of the investigations for their cooperation, particularly the brave women who stepped forward. As we have throughout this process, we will continue to cooperate with all relevant investigative bodies to provide them with the evidence we have uncovered."
"This has been an historic undertaking and one that the members of the Judiciary Committee took on with extreme diligence and thoughtfulness," said Chairman Charles Lavine. "I would like to thank all the members of the committee as well our counsel at Davis Polk for their hard work. The former governor's conduct - as shown in this report - is extremely disturbing and is indicative of someone who is not fit for office. I hope this report helps New Yorkers further understand the seriousness of the allegations that have been made and serves to guide us to a more ethical and responsible government. New Yorkers deserve no less."
The investigation was launched in March 2021 to determine whether the governor's actions in office may have justified articles of impeachment.
Lawyers from Davis Polk & Wardwell, LLP reviewed 600,000 pages of documents including photographs, texts messages, BlackBerry PIN messages, emails, recordings of phone calls, social media accounts, video recordings, memos, transcripts and other materials.
The governor himself was not officially interviewed as part of the probe, but investigators said he was given a chance to submit information and that he failed to meaningfully respond.
“At no time has the former governor meaningfully complied with the committee’s requests or cooperated with its investigation,” the report reads.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi slammed the committee's findings in a statement saying, “Any report that uses the Attorney General's politically biased investigation as a basis is going to be equally flawed."
"To date we have not been allowed the opportunity to review evidence in the Assembly’s possession, despite requests to do so and due process was certainly not afforded here," Azzopardi said.
He said the report "offers no evidence" to support any allegation of sexual misconduct or harassment and also refuted the conclusions made in regards to Cuomo's book.
“To be clear, the people who volunteered to work on the book were people mentioned in the book and therefore they were involved to make sure the representations concerning them were accurate," Azzopardi said. "Staff who volunteered took time off, evidencing that they were volunteering and not on state time. Any suggestion to the contrary is Assembly hype. The people who volunteered were senior members in the administration and were highly sophisticated in terms of official activities and volunteer activities and had performed both many times in the past. During the time period in question Robert Mujica, Beth Garvey, James Malatras, Melissa DeRosa, Gareth Rhodes, and Stephanie Benton, all mentioned in the book, reviewed it at no cost to the state. Junior staff working on Covid materials were not helping on the book, but were helping on the state’s Covid response."
Azzopardi also insists that “the conclusions that the DOH report on nursing home COVID transmissions was accurate, that there was no evidence that the March 25 order resulted in additional fatalities."
He concluded his statement with “The truth will come out.”
Cuomo's attorney, Rita Glavin, in a statement said, “The Assembly’s report simply parrots the Attorney General's flawed report, failing to engage with the many errors and omissions in the AG’s report and her one-sided, biased investigation. And, like the AG, the Assembly refused to provide the former Governor with access to all the evidence, again denying the Governor due process and a meaningful ability to respond. This is disappointing, but hardly surprising.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul was asked about the report's findings but did not directly comment on her predecessor's guilt or innocence.
Instead, she told reporters that her goal has been to get at the truth since taking office following Cuomo's resignation in August.
"I did call for an investigation, supported the attorney general's investigation, supported the investigation by the Assembly and all I can say is that with my administration we're focused on transparency which is why in the first days of my administration I insisted that the Department of Health release the true nursing home deaths picture because that had not been released before and every agency is required to be very transparent," Hochul said. "Also accountability. We have a whole system of people if they want to make complaints against our administration and they work in the chamber we have an outside law firm is the place you make the complaints to so it's not done internally or buried or any concern about retribution. So we've changed the culture from day one, a culture of transparency, accountability and ensuring that everyone feels respect in the workforce."
Hochul raised the number of nursing home deaths by 12,000 days after taking office.
Asked whether she believes Cuomo should be barred from public office in the future Hochul said it is up to the Assembly to decide.
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