New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an “independent investigation” into sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The Democratic mayor did so when asked about the allegations, which come from former Cuomo staffer Lindsey Boylan, during a press conference on Thursday.
“These allegations are really disturbing. Let’s be clear about that — they’re really disturbing. We have to, as New Yorkers, we got to take this seriously. When a woman comes forward with this kind of very specific allegations, they have to be taken serious. We need a full and independent investigation,” de Blasio said. “This is just unacceptable. This kind of behavior, if true, is unacceptable, in any public servant, in anybody.”
De Blasio, who is no stranger to clashing with Cuomo, insisted that any investigator who looks into the allegations must not be “compromised” by the governor’s office.
Boylan expounded on her allegations in a Medium post on Wednesday morning after first accusing the governor of sexually harassing her “for years” last December. Cuomo denies the claims. Boyland, who was in Cuomo’s administration from March 2015 to October 2018, said the governor kissed her without her consent and made other unwanted physical and verbal advances, which she claims his staff knew about.
“As we said before, Ms. Boylan’s claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false,” Cuomo’s press secretary Caitlin Girouard said in a statement to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
The governor’s office also sent out a statement attributable to four current or former staffers: Director of Policy John Maggiore, President and CEO of Empire State Development Howard Zemski, press secretary Dani Lever, and first deputy press secretary Abbey Fashouer Collins. “We were on each of these October flights, and this conversation did not happen,” it read.
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De Blasio has also called for an investigation into allegations that Cuomo knowingly underreported the COVID-19 death totals from nursing homes.
