Cuomo aide accused of victim smear campaign

A group of female aides that he referred to as ‘the mean girls’ worked to undermine the allegations of his accusers.

Andrew Cuomo. Picture: AFP

When Andrew Cuomo was accused of sexual harassment, a group of female aides that he referred to as “the mean girls” worked to undermine the allegations of his accusers, according to a report by New York’s attorney-general, Letitia James.

She said Melissa DeRosa, who in 2017 became secretary to the governor, the first woman to hold the post, had helped to leak confidential files relating to Lindsey Boylan, a former aide who was the first to publicly accuse Mr Cuomo of impropriety. The report concluded that the leak was intended to discredit Boylan, and that it constituted an “unlawful retaliation”.

Ms DeRosa was also alleged to have pressured a former member of staff to call another aide feared to be supportive of Ms Boylan, to see what information she had about the governor.

Mr Cuomo was said to refer to Ms DeRosa; Stephanie Benton, director of the governor’s offices; Jill DesRosiers, his chief of staff; and a spokeswoman named Dani Lever as “mean girls” although he also included a male aide in the group.

Ms DeRosa told investigators that she had heard the governor use the term.

“He would say: ‘Stop being the mean girls’,” she said.

Ms DeRosa said she had told him she hated the term, the report said.

The report also alleges that Mr Cuomo’s lawyer, Judith Mogul, and Ms DesRosiers, were slow to report a complaint from another accuser named Charlotte Bennett. It also says that they were wrong to conclude that comments the governor had made to her did not constitute sexual harassment.

Melissa DeRosa.

Months later an unnamed executive assistant to Mr Cuomo accused him of groping her breast. “While no one can state how, if at all, the governor’s conduct would have changed had formal action been taken in response to Ms Bennett’s complaint, we note that it was about five months later that the governor groped the breast of [the] executive assistant,” the report said.

Ms DeRosa did confront Mr Cuomo about his dealings with Ms Bennett, according to the report. She told investigators that after she learnt of his conversations with Ms Bennett about her past relationships and a sexual assault she had suffered, she confronted him while they were in the back of a car, saying: “I can’t believe that this happened. I can’t believe you put yourself in a situation where you would be having any version of this conversation”.

A representative for Ms DeRosa told the New York Post that she “reported allegations of sexual harassment to the governor’s lawyers and deferred to them regarding appropriate follow-up”. A spokesman for Mr Cuomo denied the inquiry had singled her out.

The Times