March, 2020:
Lindsey Boylan, an unsuccessful candidate for congress, sends threatening text messages to members of the executive office. This was after Cuomo adjusted ballot-access petitioning deadlines as part of a series of emergency measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. She treated this change for all candidates as a personal attack on her candidacy. “I will find ways to respond. Life is long. And so is my memory. And so are my resources.” (Screenshot) and the “future is coming after assholes” (Screenshot). Read more about Lindsey Boylan here.
June 10, 2020:
Charlotte Bennett, Senior Briefer and Executive Assistant to the governor reports to Chief of Staff, Jill DesRosiers, that she had uncomfortable, inappropriate conversations with Cuomo. She said that she didn’t want to work in a role that required her to interact with him. The Executive Chamber moved her into a position as Health Policy Advisor the same week. This was a role in which she had shown much interest in and she expressed satisfaction with this transfer.
Bennett insisted she did not want an investigation even though she was told they thought it was a good idea to have one. In a later follow up conversation she said she still considered Cuomo as a friend. A lawsuit mentions Bennett as participant in a coordinated false sexual assault accusation at her college in 2017. Read more about Charlotte Bennett here.
November 23, 2020:
Boylan, who lost the primary for congress, announces her candidacy in the June 2021 Democratic primary for Manhattan Borough President.
December 5, 2020:
Boylan tweets that the most toxic team environment she ever worked in was with Cuomo.
December 8, 2020:
Boylan tweets “I have very important work to do getting elected” . “I will not be spending my days responding to the trauma men like @NYGovCuomo have caused” and “if other women decide to come forward I will back them up and elaborate”. “I’m getting back to my important work that made me willing to live in hell so long working for you”.
A few hours after this tweets, Bennett contacts Boylan. She messages her that she too experienced a toxic work environment and that she doesn’t have a job. She then offers to help Boylan with her campaign and Boylan responds that it would help her (Boylan) if Bennett spoke to journalists. (Screenshot#1, Screenshot#2, Screenshot#3).
December 13, 2020:
Boylan changes her accusations from toxic work environment to sexual harassment. She tweets that Cuomo had sexually harassed her for years and that she is not the only one.
Late 2020 / Early 2021:
Brittany Commisso tells Cuomo that she is going through a divorce which is putting financial pressure on her. Following this conversation, she also asks her supervisors for a raise (denied) and to work more overtime hours (no promises made). Her husband filed for divorce, and a summons with notice is recorded at Albany County Clerk February 22, 2020 with Brittany Commisso as defendent.
February 24, 2021:
Karen Hinton accuses Cuomo of bullying and being a master of the art of “penis politics”. In the same article she promotes a book she is writing on this topic (“penis politics”). Hinton was press secretary to Cuomo, when he served as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Interestingly, in an article about men in politics, written only 2 years earlier in 2018, she wrote: “I’ve been fortunate to have male bosses, like Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, who know how to be respectful of women even while being no-nonsense managers.” (Screenshot).
Lindsey Boylan publishes an article on Medium sharing more details about her sexual harassment. She claims Cuomo said, “Let’s play strip poker” on a flight in 2017 and kissed her at his office in 2018.
Bennett promotes Boylans Medium article on Twitter.
February 26, 2021:
Boylan thanks Bennett for amplifying her story and recommends journalists. She also writes: “He’s very wounded, that’s why I did this week.”
February 27, 2021:
Bennett makes her allegations in an Interview with The New York Times. She claims Cuomo harassed her by asking her personal questions which she understood to be sexual advances. She fails to mention that she had been disclosing personal details to him unsolicited and repeatedly in previous conversations. None of the questions he asked, especially when taken in the context they were discussed, were obvious (or not so obvious) sexual advances.
March 1, 2021:
Anna Ruch alleges sexual harassment during a wedding in 2019 according to a New York Times Interview. Cuomo officiated at this wedding of one of his team members. She claims Cuomo touched her bare lower back, placed his hands on her faced, asked to kiss her, and then kissed her cheek. Read more about Anna Ruch here.
Ana Liss receives a call from Boylan who wants to see if Liss would have stories about Cuomo to share. This is according to Liss’s interview from March 8, 2021. Liss worked for Karen Hinton’s husband, Howard Glaser. Read more about Liss here.
March 3, 2021:
Brittany Commisso tells two coworkers that she had inappropriate conversations with Cuomo and that he touched her.
March 4, 2021:
Bennett tells CBS Evening News Anchor Norah O’Donnell that Cuomo was propositioning her for sex.
March 6, 2021:
Hinton claims in an interview with the Washington Post that Cuomo embraced her in his hotel room in Los Angeles and “too long, too tight, too intimate”. This was after a work event 20 years ago, in December 2000. However, according to the article, Hinton already spoke to WaPo on February 14. This means it was before Boylan’s Medium article and Bennett’s public appearance. Yet, she claims she came out with her story in order to support these 3 women (NBC4 interview same day).
Ana Liss, a former employee at the Executive Chamber from 2013-2015 claims a toxic work environment and inappropriate treatment by Cuomo in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Coincidentally, Liss’s boss at that time was Howard Glaser, who is Karen Hinton’s husband. Her evidence is a photo from 2014 with Cuomo’s hand around her waist, which she kept proudly on ther desk. It was still there at the time of the interview.
Brittany Commisso tells her coworkers that Cuomo groped her (in this version, also threw her against the wall and kissed her).
March 7, 2021:
Brittany Commisso obtains a personal injury lawyer, which indicates that she was looking for financial settlement.
March 9, 2021:
Brittany Commisso’s allegation of being groped by Cuomo appear in an article in the )Times Union. Commisso was still an unnamed aide at that time. Read more about Commisso here.
March 12, 2021:
Politico reports a plot of the far-left New York State legislators State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, and State Sen. Gustavo Rivera in a Clubhouse chatroom aimed at taking down Governor Andrew Cuomo. Rivera: “The question we are asking is how do we make it impossible for our governor to ever run again?. Biaggi states that they would need a ““motherf—ing army.” The chat must have taken place between February 24th and March 12th, 2021.
Read here: Clubhouse politics: Democratic insurgents plot against Cuomo in digital space.
Kaitlin, a former Executive Chamber employee alleges in an interview with New York Magazine that Cuomo hired her for her looks. She says he abused her by commenting on her looks when she was rushing to arrive in the morning and coming in not ready to work, and saying she looked like a lumberjack when she wore a lumberjack pattern shirt. Kaitlin did not perform as expected, apparently failing to transfer phone calls properly. The Executive Chamber transferred her out after one year in 2018. Read more about Kaitlin here.
Jessica Bakeman, a journalist who worked as a part of the Capitol press while working for Politico New York, accuses Cuomo of sexually harassing her. In her article she describes how Cuomo grabbed her hand during a holiday party at the Executive Mansion in 2014 and put his hand around her waist for a photograph. This happened after “[she] walked up to the governor, who was in the middle of a conversation with another reporter, and waited for a moment when [she] could interject. Note: Bakeman is not part of the 11 accusers in the report. We only added her for the sake of completeness and to illustrate the opportunism.
March 18, 2021:
Boylan expands her harassment claims and adds retaliation in an interview in the New Yorker. This was because Cuomo’s team shared her history with journalists to shed light on her lack of credibility. This included her bullying employees and the truth about the end of her job as a New York State employee.
Valerie Bauman, a Bloomberg reporter, tweets that Cuomo as New York Attorney General in 2007 made “unwavering eye contact” during a press conference. He then “beelined” for her, “took [her] hand, entered [her] personal space and looked into [her] eyes as he announed, ‘Hello, I’m Andrew Cuomo’.” Note: Again, as with the other otherwise unknown journalist, this is not part of the report. We only added her for the sake of completeness and to illustrate the pattern of opportunism .
March 19, 2021:
Alyssa McGrath, a current Cuomo aide and close long-term friend of co-accuser Brittany Commisso claims in an interview with New York Times Cuomo harassed her in the form of ogling her body, calling her beautiful in Italian and making suggestive comments. Read more about McGrath here.
March 29, 2021:
Sherry Vill accuses Cuomo in a video of kissing her on both cheeks when he was touring her house in the town of Greece when he was assessing flood damage and meeting affected residents. This happened in May 2017, in front of her family, and her son took a picture which her daughter posted on Facebook. Vill herself also posted proudly on her Facebook about the meeting. As can seen from comments money is the main topic here. Note: This is not part of the report and only added for the same reasons as the Bakeman and Bauman tales.
April 7, 2021:
Brittany Commisso (still anonymous) gives an in interview with Times Union describing the alleged groping at the Executive Mansion in November 2020.
July 17, 2021:
Cuomo is interviewed by the AG’s investigators for 11 hours.
August 3, 2021:
New York State AG Letitia James announces she has found Cuomo guilty of sexually harassing multiple women and releasing her report including 3 appendices of evidence which do not support her conclusion. In the report 4 additional women are listed as victims (see an overview of all 11 women in the report here).
Cuomo Attorney Rita Glavin provides a Position Statement by the Governor proving that the claim he groped Commisso on November 16, 2020, is false.
August 5, 2021:
Brittany Commisso files a criminal complaint at the Sheriff’s Office instead of the Police Department.
August 7, 2021:
Sheriff Craig Apple gives a press conference in which he declares Commisso “our victim” before even starting his investigation.
August 10, 2021:
Cuomo’s counsel Rita Glavin gives a presentation pointing out the glaring and concerning issues with AG James’ report showing it was about building a case against Cuomo, not about a fair investigation to seek the truth. Following this, Cuomo announces his resignation to avoid months of political and legal controversy, but emphasizes that the report is politically motivated and untruthful. He also points out that specifically Commisso’s allegation is false.
October 8, 2021:
Rita Glavin sends a letter to the Judiciary Committee of the NYS Assembly regarding their Impeachment Investigation detailing “many material omissions and errors that render the Report flawed, unreliable and misleading.”
October 27, 2021:
Several news outlets report that Letitia James is preparing her announcement to run for governor 2022.
October 28, 2021:
An investigator for Sheriff Apple files criminal charges against Cuomo in Albany City Court for “forcible touching” of Brittany Commisso.
October 29, 2021:
District Attorney David Soares issues a statement saying “Like the rest of the public, we were surprised to learn today that a criminal complaint was filed in Albany City Court by the Albany County Sheriff’s Office against Andrew Cuomo”. On the bottom of the statement: “All parties are presumed innocent until and unless convicted”.
Brittany Commisso’s attorney, Brian Premo issues a statement saying “Like the district attorney’s office, she was informed about this recent filing through media”, indicating that the expectation was to inform Commisso (and him) first to decide if she wants to proceed as victim in the complaint (which she did, as he confirmed later).
Sheriff Apple gives a press conference claiming he was surprised the summons were issued so quickly by an Albany City Court Judge after his investigator met with a judge to obtain “guidance” on the filing of the criminal complaint. During the press conference, he refers to Commisso repeatedly as “our victim”.
Letitia James releases a statement claiming that “the criminal charges against Mr. Cuomo for forcible touching further validate the findings in our report” although they do exactly the opposite. According to her report, the incident happened on November 16, 2020. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the incident occurred on December 7, 2020.
October 29, 2021:
Letitia James announces officially her run for Governor 2022.
October 30, 2021:
Rita Glavin, attorney for Governor Cuomo, serves a Preservation Notice on Sheriff Apple (with copy to DA Soares) demanding that all evidence of his investigation be preserved, including his communication with Commisso, the press, and legislators. Additionally, she also writes that her team will call for an investigation into “unlawful grand jury leaks” from the sheriff’s office. Letter Page#1, Page#2, Page#3.
November 4, 2021:
District Attorney David Soares sends a letter to the Albany City Court calling the complaint the Sheriff “unilaterally and inexplicably” filed “potentially defective”, among other issues because the filing failed to include a sworn statement by the victim, but instead included a portion of statement she gave without oath in another proceeding, and “even more troubling”, excluded other portions of her testimony. Quote: “This portion of the transcript has now been provided to the defense counsel due to its exculpatory nature.” Letter Page#1 and Page#2.
November 8, 2021:
Cuomo’s attorney Rita Glavin releases a letter to the AG Letitia James requesting “Criminal Investigation of Albany County Sheriff Craig D. Apple for Unlawful Disclosure of Grand Jury Information”. She further demands James to appoint an independent prosecutor given her conflict of interest, or seek a referral from Governor Kathleen Hochul to appoint a truly independent prosecutor. Glavin accuses Apple of leaking confidential information to New York Post reporter Bernadette Hogan. In addition, she refers to Apple’s “willingness to disregard the law for his own purposes and to the detriment of individual rights”. In a taped recording from 2011 and interview from 2013 Apple admitted to manipulate the law, not matter if right or wrong, to get what he wants:
November 10, 2021:
The AG’s Office starts to release transcripts – selectively and with essential parts retracted: Transcripts and Exhibits from Independent Investigation into Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Former Governor Andrew Cuomo | New York State Attorney General (ny.gov)
December 23, 2021:
Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith announces there would be no charges based on Trooper J.’s allegation that Cuomo ran his hand across her abdomen at an event at Belmont Park in September 2019.
December 27, 2021:
Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah announces that her office will not criminally charge Gov. Andrew Cuomo based on allegations by Trooper J.
January 4, 2022:
Albany County District Attorney David Soares declines to prosecute Cuomo for allegedly forcibly touching Brittany Commisso.
January 7, 2022:
Albany City Court Judge Holly Trexler dismissed the criminal case filed by the Sheriff’s office on behalf of Brittany Commisso.
January 8, 2022:
CNN reports that the Manhattan DA Office decided to not file charges based on the Trooper’s allegation that Gov. Cuomo touched her back in his NYC office) and on the State Entity Employee’s allegation that he touched her butt while taking a picture.
January 31, 2022:
Oswego County DA Gregory Oakes declines as 5th DA to file criminal charges and dismisses the last case (Virginia Limmiatis) against Governor Cuomo.