- Andrew Cuomo’s former govt assistant is suing him for sexual harassment.
- The previous New York governor faces allegations of forcible touching and unwelcome sexual advances.
- Cuomo’s lawyer informed Enterprise Insider the lawsuit is a “money seize” and the allegations are false.
A former govt assistant to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who accused him of groping her in late 2020, is suing the previous governor below New York’s Grownup Survivors Act.
Brittany Commisso claims in court docket papers that Cuomo’s “steady sexual harassment” included “unwelcome sexual advances, sexualized feedback about look and private issues, relations, their courting, their intercourse life, and her marriage, project of humiliating and demeaning duties, hugs, kisses, sexual touching of the buttocks, and forcible touching of the breast,” based on a three-page summons filed Wednesday.
The doc stated Cuomo’s conduct created a “pervasive hostile work setting,” and that Commisso suffered “critical bodily, emotional, and psychological ache, struggling and accidents” consequently.
Commisso’s submitting got here simply days earlier than New York’s Grownup Survivors Act expired. The legislation offered a one-year window for adults to file civil lawsuits associated to sexual abuse allegations that might in any other case have been previous the statute of limitations. Numerous high-profile males have been sued in New York below the ASA in current days, together with Mayor Eric Adams, actor Jamie Foxx, Weapons N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs. All 4 males have denied the allegations in opposition to them.
Commisso, who labored within the governor’s workplace between 2019 and 2021, had beforehand pursued prison costs in opposition to Cuomo for the forcible touching allegations, however the case was dismissed in 2022 after prosecutors stated they may not meet the burden of proof.
Cuomo has lengthy denied Commisso’s allegations, which had been first made public in 2021. Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, referenced the dropped prison case in an announcement offered to Enterprise Insider.
“Ms. Commisso’s claims are provably false, which is why the Albany District Legal professional dismissed the case two years in the past after an intensive investigation,” Glavin stated. “Ms. Commisso’s clear try at a money seize will fail. We sit up for seeing her in court docket.”
Cuomo resigned in August 2021, shortly after New York’s lawyer common, Letitia James, launched a 165-page investigative report documenting allegations that he had sexually harassed 11 ladies — together with members of his employees.
Regardless of concluding that Cuomo “violated a number of state and federal legal guidelines,” James’ report didn’t attain a conclusion on whether or not his conduct ought to be criminally prosecuted. And although prosecutors in Oswego, Albany, Westchester, and Nassau Counties opened prison investigations into Cuomo’s conduct, Commisso’s allegation of forcible touching was the one one to end in a prison cost in opposition to Cuomo.
The report, which referred to Commisso as “Government Assistant #1,” alleged that Cuomo as soon as kissed her on the lips, had grabbed her buttocks throughout hugs a number of occasions, and as soon as even reached below her shirt to seize her breast throughout a hug.
Commisso later revealed herself publicly as Government Assistant #1 and informed media shops that she needed Cuomo to be held accountable.
“What he did to me was a criminal offense. He broke the legislation,” Commisso stated on the time.
