Still angry over sex harassment findings, Andrew Cuomo asks NY courts to investigate NY AG Letitia James

• Former NY governor Andrew Cuomo has filed a 48-page ethics complaint against NY AG Letitia James.
• The Attorney Grievance Committee complaint accuses James of cooking up last year's sex harassment report.

Former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo has filed an attorney ethics complaint against the state's attorney general, Letitia James, whose damning sex harassment report helped force him from office a year ago.

Cuomo's 48-page complaint was filed Tuesday with the state court system's Attorney Grievance Committee.

The complaint elaborates on disagreements with James that Cuomo has previously aired, including his claims that the report was inaccurate or misleading and that James was politically biased.

It asks for an investigation and unspecified "appropriate action" against James and two of her special deputies, former acting US Attorney Joon Kim and employment lawyer Anne Clark.

"She engaged in a terrible and quite obvious manipulation of facts, evidence and the law, furthered a false narrative about me, and hid evidence that undermined the report from the media and the public," Cuomo wrote of James in his complaint.

James' report had concluded that the then-governor harassed nearly a dozen women, including members of his own staff, state employees, and a state trooper. The alleged harassment included a pattern of unwelcome touching and suggestive, sexual comments, she concluded.

Cuomo has strongly and repeatedly called the report's allegations false.

In one example he cited Tuesday, Cuomo said James "bombastically and repeatedly" implied that he sexually harassed eleven women, "even though the allegations made by most of the eleven women did not constitute sexual harassment under state or federal law."

Cuomo also accuses James of hiding what he calls important discrepancies in the account of his former assistant, Brittany Commisso, who alleged that her boss forcibly groped her breast at the Executive Mansion in Albany on November 16, 2020.

The discrepancies allegedly involved conflicting statements Commisso may have made concerning why she was at the mansion that day — whether for a "phone issue," or to work on a speech — and whether Cuomo allegedly did or did not slam her up against a wall during the alleged assault.

Cuomo does not explain how any lack of clarity on why Commisso was at the mansion or on whether the wall was, or was not, involved disproves her entire account.

In January, the Albany County district attorney announced that it had concluded its own investigation into Commisso's account and was not pursuing a prosecution of Cuomo. The office had found Commisso "cooperative and credible" but did not have enough evidence to bring the case to trial, DA David Soares said in a press release at the time.

"Attorney General James, Joon Kim, and Anne Clark hold themselves to the highest ethical standards," James said in a statement responding to Cuomo's complaint.

"Mr. Cuomo resigned after an independent investigation revealed that he preyed on multiple women who worked for him. New Yorkers are ready to move forward and close this sordid chapter in our state's history."