Former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sexually harassed over a dozen female state employees during his administration, according to a settlement agreement on the issue signed between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the State of New York Executive Chamber.
The Executive Chamber is the office of the governor and includes the immediate staff that assists the governor in managing the state government. In 2021, a report from the New York Attorney General’s office found that Mr. Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women. He resigned a week after the report was published. On Jan. 26, the executive chamber signed a settlement agreement with the Justice Department which claimed that Mr. Cuomo “subjected at least thirteen female employees of New York State, including Executive Chamber employees, to a sexually hostile work environment.”
“Governor Cuomo repeatedly subjected these female employees to unwelcome, non-consensual sexual contact; ogling; unwelcome sexual comments; gender-based nicknames; comments on their physical appearances; and/or preferential treatment based on their physical appearances,” it said.
The agreement revealed that during the Cuomo administration, the executive chamber was aware of the former governor’s conduct but failed to “effectively remediate the harassment on a systemic level.”
“When employees attempted to raise concerns about Cuomo’s conduct to his senior staff, Cuomo’s staff failed to follow Equal Employment Opportunity policies and procedures to promptly report those allegations to the appropriate investigative body,” the agreement stated.
“Indeed, the Executive Chamber’s response was designed only to protect Cuomo from further accusations, rather than to protect employees from sexual harassment,” it said.
Mr. Cuomo’s senior staff were not only aware of his conduct but retaliated against four of the women he subjected to harassment, it said.
By engaging in discrimination against female employees based on sex and subjecting them to and tolerating a “sexually hostile work environment” created by the Cuomo administration between 2013 and 2021, the executive chamber was found to have violated Title VII. The acts of retaliation against employees who complained about harassment also violated Title VII, the agreement stated.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, and national origin.
“Executive Chamber employees deserve to work without fear of sexual harassment and harsh reprisal when they oppose that harassment,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“The conduct in the Executive Chamber under the former governor, the state’s most powerful elected official, was especially egregious because of the stark power differential involved and the victims’ lack of avenues to report and redress harassment.”
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York said he appreciates current New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s focus on ensuring that sexual harassment does not recur at the highest levels of the New York state government.
Case Against Cuomo
The settlement between the DOJ and the New York State Executive Chamber comes days after Mr. Cuomo filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Letitia James to get access to sexual misconduct probe statements launched against him.The 2021 report by Ms. James alleged that Mr. Cuomo subjected several women to sexual harassment by engaging in “unwanted groping, kissing, and hugging, and making inappropriate comments.”
During the investigation, 179 complainants as well as current and former members of the executive chamber, state employees, state troopers, and others who regularly interacted with Mr. Cuomo were interviewed. Over 74,000 documents, emails, pictures, and text were reviewed.
Mr. Cuomo has denied the allegations leveled against him, criticizing Ms. James and the investigation as unfair.
The lawsuit against the New York Attorney General states that despite Mr. Cuomo having “repeatedly asked the OAG (Ms. James’ office) for the requested materials since the report was released more than two years ago … respondent James has steadfastly refused to produce the evidence despite her August 3, 2021, public promise to release it.”
Ms. James’ refusal to release requested materials “has been and continues to be a denial of fundamental due process,” it said while arguing that Mr. Cuomo needs the witness statements to defend himself in two sexual harassment lawsuits stemming from the investigation.
“The report was a one-sided, deeply flawed ambush of Governor Cuomo, who denies having sexually harassed anyone,” the lawsuit said.
Rita Glavin, an attorney for Mr. Cuomo, criticized the DOJ-Executive Chamber settlement agreement on Friday, saying that her client “did not sexually harass anyone,” according to CNN. The investigation done by the DOJ “was based entirely on the NYS Attorney General’s deeply flawed, inaccurate, biased, and misleading report.”
Mr. Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said on Friday that the Justice Department’s work on the issue “isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”
Mariann Wang, an attorney for two women who were allegedly harassed by Mr. Cuomo, said they were “pleased” that the Executive Chamber and the U.S. Attorney’s office have taken “serious steps to ensure nothing like the abuse Cuomo engaged in will happen again.”
“We hope these measures have real impact and prevent the kind of repeated abuse of power that resulted in so much harm to so many women.”
“While Cuomo and his deranged sycophant enforcers are desperately trying to resurrect and rewrite their heinous legacy of lies, innocent lives lost, and rampant abuse, even the DOJ confirms that Andrew Cuomo is a corrupt criminal who illegally harassed women and retaliated against them while Governor,” she wrote.
