A current aide of Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the latest in a string of women to accuse the New York Democrat of sexual harassment.
Alyssa McGrath, an employee of the governor’s office, opened up about the allegations against her boss in a Friday report in the New York Times, claiming Cuomo made suggestive comments toward her.
The 33-year-old said the governor asked about her divorce, told her in Italian that she was beautiful, and looked down her shirt, commenting on a necklace she was wearing. McGrath told the outlet that she felt the various interactions she had with the governor ultimately amounted to sexual harassment.
“He has a way of making you feel very comfortable around him, almost like you’re his friend,” McGrath said. “But then, you walk away from the encounter or conversation in your head going, ‘I can’t believe I just had that interaction with the governor of New York.'”
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“The governor has greeted men and women with hugs and a kiss on the cheek, forehead, or hand. Yes, he has posed for photographs with his arm around them. Yes, he uses Italian phrases like ‘ciao bella,'” Rita Galvin, a lawyer for Cuomo, told the outlet in response to McGrath’s allegations. “None of this is remarkable, although it may be old-fashioned. He has made clear that he has never made inappropriate advances or inappropriately touched anyone.”
The governor, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several other women, many of them former aides, is the subject of two investigations into the allegations. Attorney General Letitia James appointed Joon Kim and Anne Clark to lead the state’s investigation, and members of the New York state Assembly initiated an “impeachment inquiry” into the charges at the direction of Speaker Carl Heastie.
One former aide to Cuomo, 63, accused him of reaching under her blouse and groping her. That particular accuser has not been publicly identified.
McGrath said after the aide’s allegations were published in the Albany Times Union on March 10, the aide called her and shared a detailed description of the encounter.
“She froze when he started doing that stuff to her,” McGrath said, “but who are you going to tell?”
“He told her specifically not to tell me,” McGrath added, referring to the governor.
Cuomo has since addressed the allegations but denies touching women inappropriately.
“At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny,” Cuomo said in a Feb. 28 statement. “I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.”
He added, however, that he “never inappropriately touched anybody and [he] never propositioned anybody, and [he] never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”
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Since the allegations surfaced, a growing group of lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have called on the governor to resign. He told reporters during a conference call last week he is “not going to resign” because he “did not do what has been alleged.”
A representative for Cuomo did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment on the new allegations.
