On Thursday, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York filed suit against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The suit related to a 2021 investigation that AG James launched into then-Gov. Cuomo over claims of alleged sexual harassment. Gov. Cuomo eventually resigned over the sexual harassment allegations.
As background, AG James’ 2021 investigation found that then-Gov. Cuomo had harassed at least 11 different women. The report also found that his harassment of the women violated state law, federal law, and his own office’s policies on sexual harassment. As a result of the report released by the investigation, Gov. Cuomo resigned from his position in disgrace.
When he resigned form his position, Gov. Cuomo famously said, “I have slipped and called people ‘honey, ’sweetheart’ and ‘darling.’ I mean it to be endearing but women found it dated and offensive. I take full responsibility for my actions. I have been too familiar with people. My sense of humor can be insensitive and off-putting.”
He then added, defending his behavior, “In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate. And I should have, no excuses.”
He also described the report as a sham, saying, “This was a political hit job from the beginning to pave the way for Tish’s failed campaign for governor and it’s sad that the courts are needed to step in and order the state’s top lawyer to stop violating the law.”
Now, in his suit against AG James, Gov. Cuomo is demanding access to about 180 documents from the investigation. He argues that those documents are necessary for his defense against two sexual harassment lawsuits. Fox News Digital notes that, in the lawsuit, Gov. Cuomo also argues that the public would be best served by the knowledge of AG James’ “full basis in making the significant and impactful decisions in issuing the consequential Report and causing the resignation of their democratically elected governor.”
Continuing, Gov. Cuomo’s suit also denied all the allegations against him. Doing so, it described the report issued by AG James’ office as being “materially inaccurate, incomplete, biased, flawed and misleading,” Fox News Digital noted.
Then, explaining why the documents are necessary to his defense, which is that the sexual harassment didn’t happen, the lawsuit went on to add, “Governor Cuomo vehemently denies having sexually harassed anyone, and the witness statements relating to the allegations in both actions are critical to his defense.”
Cuomo has tried to push back against AG James in other ways as well. He filed a 48-page complaint in September of 2022, Business Insider reports, well after the initial investigation, in which he asked the state’s Attorney Grievance Committee to have the courts investigate AG James. In his compliant against her, Gov. Cuomo argued that the AG promoted a “false narrative” about him and what the evidence showed.
Featured image credit:By Tom Williams – CQ Roll Call, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132614549
"*" indicates required fields