New York Attorney General's office finds Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women

• The New York Attorney General's office investigation found that Gov. Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women.
• It found Cuomo harassed multiple female members of his own staff, state employees, and a state trooper.
• The independent investigators detailed their findings in a 165-page report released Tuesday.

The office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday that its independent investigators found that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple female members of his own staff, state employees, and a state trooper.

"We find that the Governor sexually harassed a number of current and former New York State employees by, among other things, engaging in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women," the investigators wrote in their 165-page report.

James said she is "inspired by all the brave women who came forward, but more importantly I believe them." She said Cuomo's conduct "corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government and shines light on injustice that can be present at the highest levels of government." But she later added that the report has no "criminal consequences" and that it's "ultimately up to the governor" whether he resigns in response to the report.

The report found that 11 women had "credible" allegations of misconduct. The investigation uncovered allegations from at least two women, including an unnamed state trooper and a National Grid employee, who had not previously gone public with their claims.

Leading the five-month investigation into Cuomo were former acting US Attorney Joon Kim and employment lawyer Anne Clark. Kim led the prosecution against Joe Percoco, a former Cuomo aide who was sentenced to 6 years in prison on corruption charges in 2018. Clark previously worked for Legal Momentum, a defense fund for women.

"Our investigation revealed that these were not isolated incidents," Kim said. "They were part of a pattern."

On Tuesday afternoon, Cuomo denied all allegations that he's sexually harassed or inappropriately touched anyone.

"I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances," Cuomo said in a televised statement.

The report detailed a "toxic, hostile, abusive" workplace fostered by the governor. One former state employee told investigators that the governor made women feel like "prey." The report also said that there was a sense among Cuomo's staff members that getting his personal attention was "not only normal, but to be valued."

The investigators said their findings offer more than enough evidence that Cuomo committed gender-based workplace harassment.

"Women also described to us having the governor seek them out, stare intently at them, look them up and down or gaze at their chest or butt," Clark said. "In some, the governor routinely interacted with women that focused on their gender, sometimes in explicitly sexualized manner in ways that women found deeply humiliating and offensive."

The report has immediately intensified previous calls for Cuomo to resign and will likely reignite efforts to impeach Cuomo in the Democrat-controlled State Legislature. Cuomo, who's up for a fourth term next year, has rejected calls for his resignation, including from his state's two Democratic senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. In March, President Joe Biden said Cuomo should resign if the investigation found the misconduct allegations against him to be true.

Cuomo was questioned under oath by the investigators for 11 hours on July 17, The New York Times reported on Monday. Clark told reporters on Tuesday that his responses were "a mixture of admitting to certain things, but putting a different spin on them, and denying others outlined in the report."

The governor has repeatedly denied that he ever harassed or touched anyone inappropriately, but he apologized last March for making his accusers "feel uncomfortable." Cuomo and his staffers have since alleged that the investigation is unfair and biased against him.

"I'm very eager to get the facts to the people of this state," Cuomo said. "I think when they hear the actual facts, what happened, how the situation has been handled, I think they're going to be shocked. Shocked."

A top aide to Cuomo, Richard Azzopardi, told The Times that leaks to the press concerning the investigation "provide further evidence about the documented bias of these reviewers."

The first allegation of sexual misconduct against Cuomo was made by Lindsay Boylan, a former aide to the governor, who said in a series of tweets last December that Cuomo "sexually harassed me for years." In a February Medium post, she detailed several instances in which the governor touched her inappropriately and kissed her on the lips without her consent in his Manhattan office. Cuomo denied Boylan's accusations.

After Boylan went public with her story, six other women came forward with allegations against Cuomo. A former executive assistant to Cuomo, Charlotte Bennett, publicly revealed that she had filed a sexual harassment complaint against the governor last year after Cuomo repeatedly made sexual overtures towards her, including asking whether she had sex with older men.

One current unnamed aide accused Cuomo of reaching under her blouse and groping her breast while they were alone in the Executive Mansion after she was summoned to help him with a tech issue late last year.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or visit their website to receive confidential support.