Explosive Report Finds Cuomo Sexually Harassed Multiple Women and Retaliated Against at Least One Victim

The behavior included unwelcome and nonconsensual touching of “intimate body parts,” as well as repeated sexualized comments.

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, many of them young, and in doing so violated federal and state law, the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced Tuesday, concluding a four-month investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against the powerful third-term Democrat.

The detailed report found that Cuomo engaged in a pattern of sexually-based harassment targeting current and former state employees, as well as non-state employees. The behavior included unwelcome and nonconsensual touching of “intimate body parts,” as well as repeated sexualized and gendered comments. According to the report, the governor retaliated against at least one woman who made her claims public, Lindsey Boylan, and his office created an unpublished memo that sought to attack Boylan with conspiracy theories asserting that she was being funded by far-right supporters of Donald Trump.

The report did not find that Cuomo’s actions should be subjected to criminal prosecution.

The investigation, which specifically pushed back against Cuomo’s defense that his conduct was nothing more than “customary” friendly gestures, concluded that Cuomo created a hostile work environment “rife with bullying, fear, and intimidation.”

Cuomo, in a video message, pushed back on the findings and denied the allegations of inappropriate touching. He also offered a slideshow of photos showing him embracing various individuals to try to demonstrate that his behavior was not sexual. As Cuomo responded, three New York Democrats—Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Thomas Suozzi, and Gregory Meeks—added their names to the long list of lawmakers calling on the governor to resign.

“I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” Cuomo said in his response. “I am 63 years old. I have lived my entire adult life in public view. That is just not who I am.”

All eyes are now on the state’s legislature, which has the power to impeach Cuomo.

You can read the full AG report here.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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