Cuomo aide texted, ‘depends how you define bs’ when asked if groping claims true
One of Andrew Cuomo’s former staffers texted his friends that it “depends how you define bs” when asked if groping allegations made against the then-governor were true, documents released Thursday revealed.
Josh Vlasto’s text exchange and testimony were among the latest cache of files released by the New York Attorney General’s office in regards to last year’s sexual harassment probe that ultimately led to Cuomo resigning.
Vlasto, who worked as Cuomo’s chief of staff from 2013 to 2014 and helped his ex-boss smear the governor’s first accuser, was sent a Whatsapp text on March 13, 2021 asking: “Is the groping stuff all bs?” — meaning bulls—t.
The text, sent by an unidentified person, was in reference to Brittany Commisso’s allegations that Cuomo reached under her shirt and groped her in Albany’s Executive Mansion.
Commisso’s allegation led to a misdemeanor criminal complaint being filed against the disgraced former governor — but it was dropped earlier this month.
“Depends how you define BS,” Vlasto responded to the text.
Someone replied: “Under the shirt is legit.”
During his testimony, Vlasto dismissed the text exchange as a “silly WhatsApp chat with my college friends.”
When asked to clarify what he meant by investigator Abena Mainoo of Clear, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP, when he said it depended on the definition, Vlasto said: “Meaning if they were telling the truth or not. Is it more severe or less severe.”
He added: “It is just being glib on a text. Not putting too much effort on a Saturday at 4 in the afternoon what I’m saying to folks.”
Vlasto testified that he didn’t know which of his friends stated that groping under the shirt was “legit.”
“But I think he was probably just suggesting if the Gov were to do that, that would be a serious problem,” he explained.
“Do you agree with that?” asked Mainoo.
“Yes,” responded Vlasto.
Vlasto abruptly left his job as a managing director at Kivvit — a politically connected public relations firm — after he was named in the attorney general’s scathing report as part of Cuomo’s “inner circle.”
The report found Vlasto had helped Cuomo and his team smear sexual harassment accuser Lindsey Boylan — and was instrumental in leaking her personnel files in Dec. 2020.
In an interview with investigators, Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa testified that Vlasto was the first to come up with the idea to leak Boylan’s records to journalists after she came forward with her allegations.
Vlasto, in his own testimony, told investigators he believed Boylan’s files gave “relevant context for the reporters … given that Lindsey [Boylan] was making accusations of harassment.”
He added that he believed Cuomo had wanted or approved the leak.
