NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo who accused him of forcibly hugging her two decades ago said the newly-released results of New York Attorney General Letitia James' sexual harassment probe warrant a “criminal charge.”
Karen Hinton in March claimed Cuomo hugged her without her consent inside a hotel room when she worked as his press aide and consultant during his time as the U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary in 2000.
In an interview with WCBS 880’s Michael Wallace on Tuesday, Hinton maintained James’ investigation — which found Cuomo sexually harassed nearly a dozen women — left no doubt that the governor’s accusers were telling the truth.
“I’m of an older generation [than] the women who have told their story in the AG report, and I want to support them,” she said. “And I believe them, and [James] believes them, and that’s very important to empowering women everywhere across the country.”
“They’re much younger than I am, but they had the courage and the bravery to speak up. I didn’t 21 years ago, and I’m glad I was able to now. And I’m glad they were able to,” she added.
The report will "play an important role in the future, empowering other women, as well as other attorney generals and prosecutors, to bring sexual harassment charges against... men anywhere who are not acting right," she maintained.
While Hinton was not among the accusers included in the report’s list of Cuomo’s alleged “sexually harassing conduct,” a footnote in the report notes that she “told [investigators] about an incident in December 2000 when the Governor embraced her in a hotel room in a way that felt overly close and intimate.”
The report, Hinton said Tuesday, “highlight[s] the importance of women speaking out and not shutting up about sexual harassment.”
Asked about Cuomo’s response to the report — in which he continued to deny the accusations, maintaining the “facts are much different than what has been portrayed” — Hinton described it as “your classic play that an accused man makes where he blames the victim.”
“Many men who have been accused of sexual harassment always blame the victim, and he did nothing more than that in his remarks today,” she said. “He knows what he did, and he knows it’s wrong, but just as in the past, he’s had a pattern of not taking accountability for his mistakes, of not taking accountability for what he did wrong, he wants to blame others.”
“Now I’d like to see some district attorneys and prosecutors do what they need to do, and let’s not let this just be a civil charge, but a criminal charge,” she added.
Cuomo, for his part, addressed Hinton’s specific allegations in a response his attorney released Tuesday afternoon, which said the governor “strongly denied” her claims.
“Over the course of 20 years, Ms. Hinton and the Governor have been colleagues, friends and political opponents,” the response read. “But through it all, the Governor had no inkling that Ms. Hinton thought he ever acted inappropriately with her in that way.”
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