Cuomo accusers detail horror stories in newly released transcripts
Women accusing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual misconduct detailed the horrors of working with the disgraced politician — telling investigators how they were subjected to unwanted touching and gross quips about their looks, according to newly released transcripts.
Brittany Commisso — whose groping allegation led to criminal charges being filed against Cuomo last month — recalled how the governor commented on her weight and clothing, and called her by nicknames including “honey,” “sweetie,” and “Britannica.”
“I would wear pants a lot … when I wore a dress, he would comment about how — it’s about time that you showed some leg,” she said in a May 17 interview with probers.
“I wore a dress with a blazer and he instantly noticed that I was wearing a dress and said, ‘Oh, it’s about time that you showed off some leg.’
“When I walked into the room, he would look me up and down,” Commisso said. “He had this way of making me feel like he was checking me out.”
She also detailed the alleged Dec. 7 assault at the Executive Mansion, the governor’s official residence, saying: “I remember looking down and I remember seeing his hand which is, I would say, a large hand, and over my bra.”
Her testimony was one of 10 separate transcripts of interviews with Cuomo accusers released by state Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday. The women each spoke with outside lawyers hired by James to probe the allegations against Cuomo.
The month-long investigation culminated in the August report accusing the governor of sexually harassing at least 11 women. Cuomo, 63, who continues to deny the allegations, resigned a week later.
Lindsey Boylan, 37, — the first former Cuomo aide to publicly come forward — blasted the Executive Chamber to investigators as “a terrible environment for everyone, whether they were sexually harassed or not.”
“The whole building is sexual harassment,” she said in her interview.
Fellow former aide Charlotte Bennett, 25, who worked as an executive assistant and health-policy adviser, described the slew of sleazy questions she said Cuomo subjected her to.
During one conversation, she said Cuomo asked her if she has ever been with older men, and about her past history as a sexual assault survivor, leaving her “fully freaked out.”
In her interview, Commisso, 32, said the alleged groping incident came after other inappropriate interactions with Cuomo, including him giving her uncomfortable hugs and kisses when no one else was around.
“The hugs definitely got closer and tighter to the point where I knew I could feel him pushing my body against his and definitely making sure that he could feel my breasts up against his body,” she said.
Commisso, who began working directly with the governor in November 2019, said she was scared that if she pushed Cuomo away or slapped him, she would be the one to get in trouble.
“I would be taken away by the state police officers and I would be the one that would get in trouble and I would be the one to lose my job, not him,” she said.
In his own interview with investigators — the transcript of which was also released by James — Cuomo claimed it “not even feasible” for him to have groped Commisso because of the scrutiny that he was under, adding, “that never happened.”
“I would have to lose my mind to do some — such a thing. It would be an act of insanity to touch a woman’s breast and make myself vulnerable to a woman for such an accusation.”
With Post wires
