6 August 2021: Facebook Manager Participated in Smears of Cuomo Sexual Harassment Victim

Facebook executive helped Cuomo smear sex-harassment accuser: AG report

We're catching up with a number of stories involving former members of Team Cuomo who, after they had purportedly left their positions in New York's state government working for the Cuomo administration. This is the first of several stories we're featuring, which is based on information contained within the New York Attorney General's blockbuster 3 August 2021 report.

A top communications manager at Facebook helped Gov. Andrew Cuomo fight sexual misconduct allegations — including by helping leak confidential files about accuser Lindsey Boylan and by participating in regular discussions about Cuomo’s communications strategy, according to the New York attorney general’s bombshell investigation.

Dani Lever — who had worked in Cuomo’s press operation since 2014 but left in August 2020 to join Facebook as a communications manager — played a key role in Cuomo’s communications strategy even while working for Facebook, according to the investigation released Tuesday.

In December 2020, former Cuomo staffer Lindsey Boylan became the first of several women to accuse the governor of sexual harassment. Hours later, Cuomo communications director Rich Azzopardi decided to send Boylan’s confidential personnel files to several journalists in what investigators called an attempt to “discredit and disparage” her.

According to the attorney general’s report, Lever helped Cuomo’s staffers disseminate the files — even though she had already been working at Facebook for months.

One of the common elements that appear in the stories we're featuring on this topic is the integration of former Cuomo administration officials within the media and advocacy organizations where they continued serving Andrew M. Cuomo's interests. Their new employers would appear to share a bizarre tolerance for their activities on behalf of Andrew M. Cuomo while on their payrolls.