As New York Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, continues to face controversy over claims of underreporting nursing home deaths caused by his mandate and bullying Democratic dissidents, a former staffer claims he sexually harassed her.
Lindsey Boylan, the accuser, used to work as a deputy secretary for Economic Development and Housing for the State of New York, and she is now on the Democratic ticket for Manhattan Borough President.
Boylan broke her silence via Twitter on December 13, 2020. According to ABC 7, she didn’t offer any more details and wouldn’t accept any interview requests.
After the tweet, Cuomo was questioned on the validity of the claims. He denied it.
He said, “Look, I fought for and I believe a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion and express issues and concerns that she has. But it’s just not true.”
On February 24, Boylan went into the details of her earlier claim on the online publishing platform, Medium.
Boylan started her essay by quoting Cuomo when allegedly he told her, “Let’s play strip poker.” He apparently offered this when they were on a flight together in October 2017 after Cuomo said Boylan looked like his ex-girlfriends.
Four of Cuomo’s staffers denied the claim. They said in a statement, “We were on each of these October flights and this conversation did not happen.”
She wrote that the governor “stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips” while she was in his New York City office on Third Avenue giving him a one-on-one brief on economic and infrastructure projects.
“I had complained to friends that the Governor would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs. His senior staff began keeping tabs on my whereabout,” she continued.
In the essay, Boylan also claimed Cuomo abused his power to sexually harass “many other women” as well.
Cuomo’s spokeswoman, Caitlin Girouard, told reporters that Boylan’s “claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false.”
