17 July 2021: Cuomo Grilled by NY Attorney General Investigators on Sexual Harassment Allegations

Cuomo Grilled for 11 Hours in Sexual Harassment Inquiry

Some of the details of Andrew M. Cuomo's deposition by investigators from the New York State Attorney General's office are presented in this report. Here's the basic overview:

The videotaped interview lasted about 11 hours, and Mr. Cuomo faced a barrage of questions under oath about his treatment of women, posed by the two lead investigators hired by the state attorney general’s office: Joon H. Kim, the former prosecutor, and Anne L. Clark, an employment lawyer.

After months of gathering detailed accounts from former and current female aides who have accused Mr. Cuomo of sexual harassment and misconduct, Mr. Kim and Ms. Clark were finally hearing from the governor himself.

There were tense moments: At more than one point during the lengthy session, Mr. Cuomo confronted Mr. Kim, challenging his fairness and independence as a result of his past investigations into the governor and his allies.

Few details have emerged from the meeting, which took place on Saturday, July 17; the participants are barred under state law from publicly discussing the interviews, but five people briefed on the encounter shared some details on the condition of anonymity.

The article provides some background into Cuomo's previous interactions with investigator Joon Kim, which may help explain Team Cuomo's apparent fixation on attempting to smear the former deputy prosecutor:

As a top prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, Mr. Kim interrogated Mr. Cuomo in a federal investigation into the governor’s abrupt decision in 2014 to shut down the Moreland Commission, an anticorruption panel, according to three people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors ultimately closed that inquiry without bringing charges, but the investigation cast a cloud over the governor, dogging his re-election campaign at the time and raising suspicions about his commitment to rooting out public corruption in Albany.

During his brief stint as acting U.S. attorney, Mr. Kim was also involved in the prosecution of Joseph Percoco, a former top Cuomo aide who was convicted of federal corruption charges in 2018.

The report also details several senior Cuomo administration officials who have been depositioned in the state attorney general's investigation, which we'll present in a separate timeline entry that will be posted later this morning.

Note: This report was published on 2 August 2021, which the timeline covered on 3 August 2021. We've inserted this timeline entry after the fact to document the event within the overall timeline.