The Albany Times Union is reporting new details of allegations from a current executive branch staff member who says Governor Andrew Cuomo groped her at the Executive Mansion last year after becoming aggressively more flirtatious with her over several months.
The woman wishes to remain anonymous, but sat down with the paper to describe what allegedly happened last November and an alleged attempt later by the governor to ask her not to tell anyone what happened.
The woman said the incident started after she was asked to report to the governor’s home to help him with his cell phone, when she says he approached her in a "sexually aggressive manner."
When she told him they were going to get in trouble, she says he slammed the door to his office and said he didn't care. That's when she says the governor then reached under her blouse and groped her. She said the incident abruptly ended after she told the governor: “You’re crazy.”
She tells the Times Union there were other encounters with the Cuomo in which she believes he was grooming her for an encounter.
The paper says the woman is roughly half the age of Cuomo, who is 63. She says after the first allegation of sexual harassment against the governor came out from a former staffer, Lindsey Boylan, he told her not to tell anyone about their conversations or what happened.
When this woman’s allegations were earlier reported by the Times Union, the governor called them "gut-wrenching."
Rita Glavin, an attorney who represents Cuomo, released a statement Wednesday afternoon in the wake of the latest Times Union story:
“The people of New York know the governor. He has spent 40 years in public service and in the public eye. He has repeatedly made clear that he never made inappropriate advances or inappropriately touched anyone. The attorney general’s review of this claim and others, including evolving details and new public statements by complainants or their surrogates, must be thorough, fair, and provide the truth."