- Cuomo Created ‘Sexually Hostile’ Workplace, Says Justice Department
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The resigned-in-disgrace former Governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, was dealt a serious blow in his fight against being held accountable for allegations he sexually harassed multiple women while serving as governor. The U.S. Derpartment of Justice announced it confirmed many of the claims originally documented in NY state attorney general's investigation.
Those claims had provided state legislators and officials, particularly members of Cuomo's Democratic Party, with the leverage they needed to compel Cuomo to choose to resign rather than face impeachment while insulating themselves from the political fallout from the outcome of Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals that stemmed from Cuomo's infamous deadly 25 March 2020 directive.
Under the control of the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Justice has likewise sought to minimize the political fallout to Democratic party memebers from Cuomo's nursing home scandals. The DOJ previously declined to pursue federal charges of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter against Cuomo and has largely adopted the state politicians' strategy of using the sexual harassment allegations to minimize their association with "the governor who kills grandmas", to coin a phrase.
The DOJ announcement is a big enough deal that even the New York Times was compelled to cover the story, which has all the characteristics of a Friday afternoon news dump. Here's an excerpt of that coverage:
The findings appear to largely substantiate the investigation of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who concluded that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women, amid a culture of fear and intimidation. Mr. Cuomo, who denied having sexually harassed anyone, resigned in August 2021, shortly after the release of Ms. James’s report.
Since his departure, Mr. Cuomo has engaged in a multipronged campaign to discredit the report and Ms. James as being politically motivated, and has been slowly maneuvering toward re-entering political life.
But Mr. Cuomo’s efforts may be sharply compromised by the Justice Department findings, which determined that he repeatedly subjected women who worked for him to unwelcome sexual contact, comments and looks, and gave preferential treatment to some women based on their physical appearance.
From a legal standpoint, the DOJ's findings make it more difficult for Cuomo's legal team, which is being paid for by New York state taxpayers, to defend Cuomo against the civil lawsuits filed against him by his alleged victims. We'll see how Cuomo's legal and political team's respond.
Additional Coverage
The New York Post reports "Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 13 female employees, retaliated against ex-staff: Feds, in which they capture the response of Cuomo's legal and political teams:
Attorneys for Cuomo continue to deny the allegations and further claim that the federal investigation was politically motivated.
“This is nothing more than a political settlement with no investigation,” Rita Glavin, an attorney for the former governor, wrote in a statement.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said Cuomo hadn’t been interviewed as part of the federal investigation. He also bashed Breon Peace the U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of New York who signed off on the settlement, claiming he’s biased because he used to work at the same firm as one of the prosecutors in the attorney general’s investigation.
“This isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on,” Azzopardi said.
And yet, it has been written. Including in the Albany Times Union's article "Justice Department says Cuomo fostered 'sexually hostile' workplace", which emphasizes the DOJ's findings came in connection with a settlement with the state of New York:
The U.S. Justice Department on Friday announced it had reached an agreement with the New York governor’s office “to resolve the department’s claims that the Executive Chamber under former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo engaged in a pattern or practice of sexual harassment and retaliation” in violation of civil rights laws.
The agreement memorializes reforms that were enacted by Gov. Kathy Hochul and also institutes additional measures that federal authorities said are intended to prevent sexual harassment or retaliation in the Executive Chamber. The investigation, by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, had not been made public until the office announced the agreement on Friday.
The probe relied largely on the findings of a report issued by the state attorney general’s office in August 2021 that concluded Cuomo had sexually harassed or acted inappropriately with 11 women. The report also found that Cuomo and some of his top aides had cultivated a toxic workplace.
But the settlement with the U.S. attorney’s specifies that it found that Cuomo “subjected at least 13 female employees of New York state, including Executive Chamber employees, to a sexually hostile work environment.” The agreement does not identify the 13 employees or provide details on the at least two additional women it states had been subjected to a hostile work environment.
The three articles together provide a good overall picture of the DOJ's 26 January 2024 announcement.
