9 August 2021: Cuomo Sexual Harassment Victim Brittany Commisso's Televised Interview

Brittany Commisso says hugs, kisses from Cuomo were “not normal,” “not welcomed”

The following interview segment was broadcast on CBS This Morning on 9 August 2021.

The interview was a joint production between CBS News and the Albany Times Union, which carried the written story, which the timeline is presenting below....

Cuomo accuser: 'What he did to me is illegal'

We've known her as the ninth woman to come forward with serious allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct by Andrew M. Cuomo. In the NY attorney general's blockbuster 3 August 2021 report, she is identified as "Executive Assistant #1". Since she filed a criminal complaint against Cuomo on 5 August 2021, she has lost her anonymity, where the public has learned her name: Brittany Commisso. Since most other sources covering the story emphasize the sensationalistic elements of the story involving Cuomo's sexual harassment, the timeline is opting to describe how Cuomo administration officials responded after she reported her allegations to them, which we think is an underappreciated aspect of the story:

In early March, after the Times Union first reported that Commisso’s allegations had been disclosed to senior aides in the Executive Chamber by her co-workers, she said she felt a change in the dynamics of the office.

“It’s been a really hard couple of months,” Commisso said Friday. “It’s been — even though I’ve remained anonymous — and even though the … governor’s counsel and his team have said that, you know, the women who still work there are protected and there’s no retaliation … it’s different. People look at me differently. I’m not given the same job opportunities. I know that people have gotten raises. A lot of people around me.”

But Commisso said she has not received a raise and that recently she has received very few assignments, which, her attorney Brian D. Premo said, is another form of harassment.

What Premo describes as another form of harassment is better described as retaliation. Commisso's treatment differs from the retaliation taken against Cuomo's first accuser, Lindsey Boylan. In both cases, senior Cuomo administration officials (who we frequently refer to as "Team Cuomo"), led by Cuomo's top aide Melissa DeRosa, played prominent roles in the actions. In Commisso's case, the retaliation appears less extreme than in Boylan's case because Commisso went through proper channels in reporting Cuomo's misconduct involving her, limiting Team Cuomo's ability to come down as brutally hard as they did against Boylan.

We strongly suspect DeRosa's involvement in the retaliations taken against both women played a very large role in her surprise resignation the day before Commisso's interview was published.

Who is Brittany Commisso, the latest Andrew Cuomo accuser to go public?

The New York Post provided a very readable profile for Brittany Commisso, which provides a little more depth than what is contained in the Albany Times-Union's report.

No Response from Andrew M. Cuomo or His Legal Team

The timeline delayed our coverage of the Commisso interview because we anticipated a response from Andrew M. Cuomo or possibly from his legal team to have taken place sometime during 9 August 2021. At this writing late in the evening, despite having days of notice and virtually all day to respond to the interview, no such response has been forthcoming.