Charlotte Bennett, one of the central victims in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal, says she’s pleased Cuomo will step down next week, but is disappointed that he is not taking full responsibility for his actions.

“His resignation said it all, right? He really was defending himself until the last second,” Bennett said in an exclusive interview with NY1. “And in his statement after his resignation he even said that he would win in an impeachment, which I thought was laughable.”

Bennett was the second former staffer to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, and the first to speak publicly about it in the press. Her allegation followed one from Lindsey Boylan, whom the Cuomo administration attempted to disparage, according to a detailed report issued earlier this month by state Attorney General Letitia James.

Cuomo initially did not dispute Bennett’s account, saying in March he was truly sorry if he made her uncomfortable with his talk about her sex life and a sexual assault she had suffered.

More recently, Cuomo claimed that Bennett wasn’t remembering their conversations accurately, and denied saying anything inappropriate to her.

Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin on Friday went after Bennett personally.

“We have been given some new information that pertains to Ms. Bennett. That relates to her credibility,” Glavin said. “I will not get into what the information is, out of respect for Ms. Bennett.”

Bennett’s attorney responded to Glavin, saying her client will not be intimidated by Cuomo or his operatives.

Glavin went on to say she was submitting a letter to the attorney general requesting that the report be amended with new information.

The 165-page report from James corroborated the accounts of sexual harassment from 11 different women — including Bennett — who accused Cuomo of sexual harassment.

“In the sense that the report came out and it corroborated everything that we had said in March, so in that sense, I’m happy,” Bennett said. “And I think at the end of the day we are going to have our first female governor of New York and that is cause for celebration.”

The report identified a “toxic culture” within the governor’s office that helped contribute to the misconduct, along with attempts to cover it up and silence accusers.

“I also have trouble with the idea that the governor and his senior aides were using this #MeToo movement, and this language about empowering women in the workplace and just New Yorkers in general, as a way to get around these more secretive behaviors,” Bennett said. “I think it’s really gross.”

Bennett saved some of her harshest criticism for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and the Assembly as a whole, which was conducting a parallel impeachment investigation into Cuomo’s conduct.

“It was really disheartening. And it didn’t really feel like their calls for respecting the attorney general’s investigation were actually genuine. And that investigation was so important to this whole process. Before the report came out, let’s remember, about a week-and-a half before the report came out, Speaker Heastie was saying that the report probably won’t ‘rise to an action,’" Bennett said. "What does that mean? And where is that attitude coming from? I find it so surprising. And it really has been — it’s been upsetting."

Last week, Heastie announced that the five-and-a-half-month-long impeachment investigation was being suspended without any formal report on its findings. This week, he reversed course and announced that a final report would be issued. Heastie’s critics accused him of slow-walking the investigation to buy Cuomo time when the allegations first surfaced, a charge he vigorously denies.

Cuomo and his attorneys have repeatedly attacked the credibility of the James report, including the two attorneys she hired, Joon Kim and Anne Clarke, to conduct the investigation. Bennett said they did a thorough job.

“I was just really, really pleased with Anne Clark and Joon Kim. They were so professional and they were serious. They know what they are doing, they know what they are talking about,” Bennett said. “I think the attorney general not only appointed exactly the right investigators, but the way that she approached the issue at the press conference, when the report was released, was just, it felt like a moment I will replay many times over.”

A spokesman for Cuomo had no comment about Bennett’s remarks to NY1.

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