TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Erica Vladimer, Co-founder, Sexual Harassment Working Group // 732-245-9517 //
EricaVladimer@gmail.com
RE: Looking to write about Andrew Cuomo? Help is here!
DATE: October 23, 2024
As Andrew Cuomo positions himself for a potential run for New York City mayor, consider this memo a user guide for how to report on his history of sexual harassment. Here, you’ll find essential background information regarding his resignation, subsequent legal issues, and ongoing litigation. You will also find sections on Common Reporting Mistakes Not To Make and Questions for Campaign Coverage.
Bottom line: New York City's next mayor will inherit significant challenges requiring competent, ethical leadership. Voters deserve to understand how a candidate who resigned as governor amid harassment findings and continues to use public funds for personal litigation plans to serve as an effective municipal leader. New Yorkers must consider whether we want leadership that comes with such baggage. Or if, in the words of Vice President Kamala Harris, we’re not going back.
Why Aren’t We Hearing From The Women Cuomo Harassed?
Some of the women Cuomo sexually harassed are legally constrained from speaking publicly due to litigation that Cuomo continues to drag out. Others will remain silent out of fear of legal retaliation by Cuomo or his former and current staff. Rich Azzopardi is currently suing a female State Trooper who originally named him in her federal sexual harassment lawsuit against Cuomo and others (sidebar: who is paying Azzopardi’s legal fees?).
In the cases of Charlotte Bennett vs. Andrew Cuomo (Bennett v. Cuomo, Civil Action 22 Civ. 7846) and Trooper 1 vs. Andrew Cuomo (Trooper v. N.Y. State Police and Andrew Cuomo 22-CV-893 (LDH) (TAM) (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 16, 2024)) there have already been more than 30 non-party subpoenas from Cuomo’s legal team. These subpoenas burden the person subpoenaed to hire a lawyer to represent them, which can cost thousands of dollars. The discovery process in Bennett v. Cuomo has been dragging on for over a year, primarily due to Cuomo’s legal team, and was just extended through January 31st.
The Legal Record: Andrew Cuomo Broke Multiple State and Federal Laws
The Attorney General’s Investigation
Cuomo has repeatedly sought to portray the investigation into his misconduct as illegitimate by impugning the credibility of Attorney General Tish James and one of the two independent investigators she deputized, former Assistant United States Attorney Joon Kim.
Fact: Cuomo authorized the investigation when he made a legal referral to the Attorney General’s office under NYS Executive Law section 63(8) for an independent investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against him. The office of the Attorney General deputized Kim, and another independent
investigator – Anne Clark – who produced a 168-page report detailing Cuomo’s conduct and violations of law.
Read the full report here: https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2021.08.03_nyag_-_investigative_report.pdf Video of Cuomo being deposed is publicly available for anyone to view here:
https://ag.ny.gov/CuomoIndependentInvestigation/andrew-cuomo-video-testimony
Full transcripts and exhibits, including video testimony of the complainants and Cuomo’s associates, can be viewed here: https://ag.ny.gov/CuomoIndependentInvestigation
All the information about the investigation is entirely public and transparent. Any reporting on Cuomo’s false claims should be put in the context that anyone is welcome to review the investigation materials online.
Violations of State and Federal Law
As in every state and federal level, New York has criminal and civil laws. Regardless of their position, every New Yorker must follow both sets of laws. Despite Cuomo's ongoing attempts to minimize the findings by claiming district attorneys declined to bring charges, the state-level independent investigation concluded that he broke multiple state and federal civil laws.
1. New York State Human Rights Law Section 296(1)(h), which prohibits harassment that subjects individuals to inferior terms or conditions of employment. This includes unwelcome and inappropriate touching, such as grabbing an employee’s butt while taking a photo, as well as suggestive comments and questions, like whether an employee had any extramarital affairs or if they have any piercings on different parts of their body -- all of which is documented in the independent investigative report.
Cuomo should know the law better than most. It’s the same law he signed in August of 2019 after the Sexual Harassment Working Group advocated for a more common sense standard than “severe or pervasive,” an impossibly high bar to meet when seeking justice for enduring harassment in the workplace. Cuomo proudly took the credit for amending the outdated law.
2. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws discrimination in the workplace based on (among other things) sex, including gender-based harassment in the workplace. To constitute a violation of the law, the act of harassment must be severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of an employee’s workplace environment. Even under this, as mentioned above, impossibly high standard, Cuomo was found to have broken the law.
3. The Department of Justice’s own investigation confirmed the independent investigation findings, stating that under Cuomo, the New York State Executive Chamber created a sexually hostile work environment, failed to address systemic harassment issues, and engaged in retaliation against employees who spoke out.
Current Legal Battles and Taxpayer Burden
Some of the women whose accusations were confirmed by the independent investigation have sought justice through the civil court system. In response, Cuomo has embarked on an aggressive litigation strategy that unduly burdens New York taxpayers and extends his harassment of the workers he harassed.
New Yorkers have paid out over $25 million defending Cuomo in at least three separate lawsuits
from harassment survivors. Litigation is undeniably costly, but Cuomo and his legal team are exploiting a system that allows him to use public funds to finance his defense. They’ve issued over 30 nonparty subpoenas, including for years of phone records for someone barely connected to the plaintiff. He’s demanded highly sensitive and unrelated documents from plaintiffs, including their gynecological records. His attorneys have also required women not suing him to sit for hours-long depositions in ongoing litigation, forcing them to spend thousands of dollars on legal representation (victims of workplace sexual harassment are not entitled to taxpayer-funded representation) or participate without an attorney.
In his resignation speech, Cuomo claimed to “love New York” and love New Yorkers. Yet he seems to have no issue using their money to drag out litigation instead of owning up to his actions.
Competency vs. Corruption
What New York City residents truly deserve is a mayor who is not only competent but also free from corruption. Electing Cuomo as mayor would only perpetuate the power abuse we've seen with the Adams administration, posing a significant risk to the city's future.
Sexual harassment is the canary in the corruption coal mine: a signal of more widespread power abuse. Sexually harassing staff and retaliating against staff that come forward is one way to leverage power for one’s benefit. If someone is willing to abuse their staff to maintain their power, they’re clearly willing to break other laws to grow that power even more. For example:
● Former Assemblymember Vito Lopez –– who groped multiple female staffers, sought to stay in hotel rooms with them, demanded they massage him, and urged them to dress provocatively –– steered lucrative city and state contracts to his nonprofit, which also employed some of his campaign staffers in high-paying positions.
● Former Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver penalized victims of sexual harassment with punitive non-disclosure agreements to protect members like Vito Lopez while lining his own pockets with kickbacks and state contracts.
● Before being charged with campaign fraud, former Assemblymember Steve McLaughlin was disciplined for sexually harassing a staffer, lying about it during the investigation, and leaking the staffer’s name.
● To avoid trial for five felony counts after using campaign funds for personal expenditures, former Senator George Maziarz pleaded guilty to a separate charge for covering up a payment made to a former staffer who quit after he sexually harassed them.
Andrew Cuomo has already broken state and federal laws; who’s to say he won’t continue breaking laws while in office? More so, trying to get away with it is corruption, not competency. If we won’t tolerate Mayor Adams breaking the law and getting away with it, why would we accept it with anyone else?
Surrounding yourself with close advisors willing to break the law on your behalf is also corruption, not competency. Andrew Cuomo surrounded and continues to surround himself with staff who fail to follow the law, let alone internal protocols. Again, if we won’t tolerate such behavior from Adams and his advisors, why would we accept it with anyone else?
Questions for Campaign Coverage
As Cuomo continues to “quietly” build up his mayoral campaign, many questions should not remain unanswered. Here are just a few:
1. Will Cuomo commit to using his own funds to pay for his legal defense instead of billing the taxpayer?
2. Many New York City residents feel Mayor Adams cannot fully participate in his own legal defense and carry out his duties as Mayor. If elected, will Cuomo settle existing lawsuits against him and focus on his duties as Mayor?
3. How would Cuomo handle workplace harassment complaints as mayor? What specific policies would he implement to prevent harassment in his administration?
4. Given his violations of the state law, he signed, what is Cuomo’s position on NYC's even more robust human rights laws? Would he seek to change the New York City definition of harassment?
Common Reporting Mistakes Not To Make
1. When reporting on Cuomo’s actions, it is inaccurate to describe the harassment as “allegations.” The Attorney General and Department of Justice reports CONFIRMED that Cuomo violated the New York State Human Rights Law. The Attorney General’s independent investigative report corroborates the claims against him using the relevant legal standard: witness testimony, recordings, text messages, emails, etc. In fact, Charlotte Bennett’s legal team has moved for summary judgment in her lawsuit against the State of New York based on the Attorney General’s investigation (a full list of court filings can be found here). All reporting should include that the independent report and a Department of Justice investigation confirmed that Cuomo broke the law.
2. Cuomo was not “forced” to resign. He chose to resign rather than face an impeachment trial by the Legislature. If he had stayed in office and the trial had progressed, he would’ve had every
opportunity to defend himself. He was not denied due process or forced to do anything. He made an informed choice to resign; therefore, it is inaccurate to say he was “forced.”
3. Cuomo’s team claims that he was never prosecuted for any crime. This is true, but it is not exculpatory. Sexual harassment is not a criminal offense but a civil violation of law. Adding the caveat that he was never criminally prosecuted for a crime is meaningless. There was one case of alleged sexual assault – a criminal violation – which prosecutors declined to pursue. If you are going to report that he has not been criminally prosecuted, it would be more accurate to add that Cuomo is also the subject of multiple litigations for violations of the New York State Human Rights law,
4. Cuomo NOW denies all claims against him; however, this was not always the case. Cuomo initially did not deny Charlotte Bennett’s claims, first admitting to breaking the law before backtracking. Less than 24 hours after Bennett publicly shared her experience of being harassed by Cuomo, the former Governor published a video statement, saying in part:
“I never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm...I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable...It was unintentional, and I truly and deeply apologize for it. I feel awful about it and frankly, I’m embarrassed by it, and that’s not easy to say. But that’s the truth.”
Cuomo never denies his actions; instead, he claims how those actions made others feel was unintentional. But New York law doesn’t care if anyone, including a sitting Governor, didn’t mean to break the law. What matters is that Cuomo’s actions violate the law. It would be more accurate to report that although he denies all claims against him, he initially admitted to harassing Charlotte Bennett.
-30- |