2 December 2021: Cuomo Under US DOJ Civil Rights Probe for Sexual Harassment; Staff Took Action to Reduce Chances of New Allegations

Ex-Gov. Cuomo under federal probe over sexual harassment claims

This report indicates Andrew M. Cuomo is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice over his alleged sexual harassment of multiple wome while serving as New York's governor.

Federal authorities are probing the sexual harassment claims against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo that forced him from office, The Post has learned.

The stunning development is contained in a legal services contract signed in October and released by the state Comptroller’s Office on Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Law request filed by The Post.

The contract notes previously revealed Department of Justice investigations into the Cuomo administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, its cover-up of nursing home deaths and Cuomo’s $5.1 coronavirus memoir.

But it adds, “DOJ has also undertaken an inquiry related to sexual harassment claims made against the then Governor.”

The investigation would almost certainly involve determining whether Cuomo violated the civil rights of the women who have alleged he sexually harassed them.

Cuomo aides secretly imposed ‘Pence rule’ to shield governor during sex scandal

This report indicates Cuomo's staff established rules to minimize the resigned-in-disgrace former governor's opportunities to engage in sexual harassment.

Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo developed such a wildcard reputation for dealing with younger women that his top aides stole a page from former Vice President Mike Pence’s playbook and secretly stopped him from meeting one-on-one with them.

The revelation comes in transcripts of top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa’s interview with investigators probing sex harassment allegations lodged against the governor by 11 women, many of who were staffers.

She said the plan was devised in the wake of a bombshell, February 2020 interview in which former Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett, then 25, said the governor had asked her about her sex life and whether she’d “ever been with an older man,” according to a transcript of her July 5 interview.

The establishment of the policy indicates Cuomo's staffers thought the policy was needed to reduce the probability of new allegations arising.