14 December 2021: More Fallout for Cuomo Influence Network Members

PR exec connected to Andrew Cuomo sex-harass defense leaves job

Andrew M. Cuomo's influence network, largely made up of former staffers to the resigned-in-disgrace governor who were embedded within media and leftist activist organizations, continues to shrink in its influence. This report covers the latest former Cuomo staffer who has left their job, apparently in response to information contained within the New York state attorney general's offices probe of Cuomo's alleged sexual harassment of multiple women:

A top executive at politically connected public relations firm Kivvit resigned less than a month before newly released documents showed she had been aware of disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plans to discredit sexual harassment accusers.

Maggie Moran, Cuomo’s 2018 reelection campaign manager and a current managing partner at swanky PR firm Kivvit, was in the governor’s mansion in February when accuser Lindsey Boylan published a blog post saying that the then-governor kissed her without her consent and asked her to play strip poker on a taxpayer-funded jet, according to testimony from Cuomo confidante Steve Cohen.

Moran was also included in group messages where other Cuomo staffers and allies plotted how to discredit Boylan and kill news coverage of the governor’s pervy behavior, according to documents recently released by Attorney General Letitia James.

For her part, Moran acknowledges being in on the e-mail discussions, but claims to not have participated:

Despite Moran’s inclusion in weeks of messages, she insisted in a statement to The Post that she never responded with any advice about the sexual harassment claims or participated in any calls about the issue.

“I can not control being included in an email,” Moran told The Post. “In fact, I repeatedly asked to be removed from emails regarding the sexual assault allegations detailed in the Attorney General’s report and never engaged in those communications. When asked to join calls regarding allegations of sexual assault, I chose not to participate in them — every time.”

Moran’s claim that she asked to be removed from the email threads does not appear to be supported by any of the messages released by the attorney general.

And now she's leaving the executive job. The report indicates she is the third former Cuomo staffer to do so:

Meanwhile, Josh Vlasto and Rich Bamberger, two other Cuomo press staffers-turned-Kivvit employees, appear to have been more intimately involved in Cuomo’s defense than Moran. Vlasto helped spread Boylan’s personnel file to the press in an attempt to “discredit and disparage” her, while Bamberger helped gather signatures for a letter attacking her credibility, according to the attorney general.

The duo left the firm in August after The Post reported on their roles helping Cuomo and a series of lucrative contracts between Kivvit and state agencies. At the time, Kivvit also quietly updated Moran’s online bio to remove any mention of her work on Cuomo’s 2018 campaign. The company insisted that Bamberger and Vlasto had been acting entirely in their personal capacities when they helped Cuomo.

Yet documents show Moran was in multiple message threads alongside Vlasto and had been invited to join at least one group call that included him, showing that she was at least aware of his role defending Cuomo.

She will apparently be working in the marijuana industry instead of the PR agency that specializes in serving politicians and New York state government agencies.