4 December 2021: Team Cuomo's Anti-Sexual Harassment Victim Spy Operation Exposed

Cuomo spy games: DeRosa used MTA official to secretly record sex harassment accuser

This report indicates Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa was running a spy operation to ferret out which women might come forward with sexual harassment allegations against her boss, the resigned-in-disgrace former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo’s top aide pulled a downright dirty — and possibly illegal — trick to try and impugn one of the then-governor’s sexual harassment accusers, The Post has learned.

Cuomo’s right-hand aide Melissa DeRosa recruited a top MTA official as a spy to secretly record a phone conversation with an ex-executive staffer identified as “Kaitlin” who subsequently became one of the governor’s accusers.

The ploy is revealed in transcripts of state Attorney General Letitia James’ probe of Cuomo and confirmed by sources to The Post.

What potentially puts the ethically dubious ploy on thin legal ice is that Kaitlin was in California during the call — and under California law, both sides of a conversation need to give their consent before it’s recorded.

“This secret recording is shocking and we do believe it was illegal,” Kaitlin’s lawyer, Zoe Salzman, told The Post.

The report indicates the Metropolitan Transit Authority official, who is identified as "Employee #6" in the transcripts released on 29 November 2021, is MTA communications director Abbey Collins, who had shared an office with "Kaitlin" when they worked in the governor's office.

The report also indicates Human Right Campaign president Alphonso David participated in giving the greenlight to secretly record the conversation. Here's how the report describes statements DeRosa made to state attorney general's investigators during her deposition confirming his involvement:

“I tried to figure out if someone could call her and find out what was going on. I thought that there was a politically calculated movement afoot that was being driven by Biaggi and Boylan, and that Kaitlin was part of it,” she said.

She then patched in Alphonso David, Cuomo’s former legal counsel, who was then-executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, into a three-way conference call with Collins to prep her — just minutes before she called Kaitlin.

They agreed that Collins could secretly record the conversation.

James’ Cuomo probers pressed both DeRosa and Collins on whether the secret recording was legal. DeRosa said she got the OK from David.

“And I asked if she should record the call. And he said, ‘Yes. And assume she is recording it, too,'” she recalled him saying.

Alphonso David was ousted as the Human Rights Council's president for his role in the Cuomo administration's efforts to suppress allegations against Andrew M. Cuomo on 7 September 2021.

Several Cuomo administraton officials' legal defense against civil and criminal litigation has become much more difficult with this information. Andrew M. Cuomo's own legal liability has increased to the extent that lower level officials involved in the spy operations on his behalf may seek to trade their testimony involving his conduct in office to secure lesser penalties.