NEW YORK — Lindsey Boylan helped drive Andrew Cuomo from workplace in 2021 when the previous aide got here ahead as the primary girl to accuse the governor of sexual harassment.
On the time she had allies in excessive locations: Each New York Democrat in Congress, the state’s legislative leaders and then-President Joe Biden all condemned Cuomo’s conduct and mentioned he ought to resign.
However now that Cuomo is again as a severe contender within the race to be mayor of New York City, a lot of these prime Democrats have little to say about his candidacy.
To Boylan, that seems like a betrayal — one that may’t merely be defined away as an easing of #MeToo outrage.
“If something has modified, momentarily, it’s that throughout our nation, throughout points, individuals who ought to be talking up, aren’t,” Boylan, who served within the Cuomo administration for 3 years, mentioned in an interview with The Related Press.
“I don’t assume something has particularly modified with ladies being indignant about how our rights are being taken away,” she mentioned. “However the truth that most of our leaders are extra involved in staying comfy and staying of their jobs than really defending us and defending us. That’s gotten a lot worse.”
PHOTOS: As many top Democrats stay silent on Cuomo mayoral run, an accuser feels betrayed
Cuomo resigned in 2021 after a report launched by the state legal professional basic concluded that he had sexually harassed 11 ladies, together with Boylan.
Now, Cuomo is a frontrunner within the mayoral race, at the same time as state and celebration leaders, whereas not heat to his candidacy, haven’t condemned it both.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who as Cuomo’s lieutenant governor had referred to as his alleged conduct with ladies “repulsive and illegal,” mentioned Tuesday she stood by these feedback. However, she added, she needed to “deal within the actuality at the moment.”
“I’ve to go ahead in gentle of the place we’re at the moment and take care of regardless of the voters resolve to take care of,” she mentioned, including that she would work with Cuomo if he was elected.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand mentioned on the NY1 tv station that Cuomo made errors, however was additionally a proficient government who did good issues as governor. It was as much as New York City voters whether or not he deserved a second probability, she mentioned, declining to provide her personal opinion on his candidacy.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Home minority chief, mentioned final week that he wouldn’t endorse a candidate till after the town’s June major. The workplace of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority chief, declined to remark.
That Cuomo is a reputable candidate is probably going as a result of a mixture of components, specialists mentioned. These embody the previous governor’s aggressive effort to discredit his accusers and his deep document of accomplishments as governor, in addition to a area of mayoral candidates with little identify recognition and an ongoing sense of dysfunction at Metropolis Corridor.
Mayor Eric Adams, the incumbent, was indicted in September on federal corruption expenses and is now coping with a tempest of criticism after President Donald Trump’s newly put in Justice Division leaders requested a court docket to drop the case so Adams might help with the federal authorities’s immigration crackdown.
In an announcement, a Cuomo spokesperson, Wealthy Azzopardi, mentioned a number of prosecutors have dug into the allegations the previous governor sexually harassed ladies and none have sought to pursue the circumstances. He accused Boylan of constructing false accusations throughout a failed run for a neighborhood political workplace in 2020, and accused her of bullying conduct
“Three years, 5 district legal professional evaluations that resulted in zero circumstances and civil circumstances that have been both dropped or are dying on the vine,” Azzopardi mentioned, calling that “a clarifying dose of due course of.”
New York City “is in disaster and all people is aware of that Andrew Cuomo has the expertise, the document and the ability to assist reserve it,” he added.
Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse College, mentioned the present mayor’s authorized and political troubles assist place Cuomo on the entrance of the pack of candidates.
“New York is in such a state of chaos and the federal government wants somebody to return in and take cost and run the present. He’s well-matched for that second,” he mentioned.
To not Boylan, although, who joined an illustration exterior a Cuomo marketing campaign fundraising occasion on Tuesday.
“His path to victory is to destroy the ladies he abused,” she instructed the AP. “I’ll do all the things inside my energy and my sense of ethics to ensure it doesn’t occur.”
Boylan, who mentioned she was subjected to an undesirable kiss and inappropriate feedback from Cuomo, was disenchanted however not stunned that different Democrats in New York had not spoken out extra forcefully.
“Probably the most highly effective folks in New York politics are afraid of him,” she mentioned.
Different feminine ex-aides described fielding kisses — generally on the lips — and sexually charged questions and remarks from him about their private lives and look.
A staffer at a state-related company mentioned he groped her rear whereas they posed for a photograph. A state Well being Division physician was affronted by his feedback, comparable to “you make that robe look good,” whereas she gave him a COVID-19 check at a information convention. One other girl described Cuomo planting an undesirable kiss on her face when she met him at a marriage.
One aide, Brittany Commisso, filed a legal criticism accusing Cuomo of groping her breast whereas they have been alone in an workplace on the governor’s mansion, however a neighborhood district legal professional declined to prosecute, citing lack of enough proof.
Cuomo apologized for having “offended” the ladies with remarks he mentioned have been supposed to be collegial, and allowed that he generally had been “too acquainted” with folks. However he denied touching anybody inappropriately and mentioned the investigation of his conduct was flawed and politically motivated.
Legal professional Common Letitia James, the Democrat who commissioned the sexual harassment investigation, herself briefly ran for governor in 2021 after Cuomo resigned, however dropped out after two months.
Cuomo’s attorneys and representatives have since fought to vindicate him amid a number of lawsuits from his accusers. Cuomo even has indicated he plans to file a defamation swimsuit towards one of many ladies, former aide Charlotte Bennett.
Regardless of the accusations, Cuomo has lined up some endorsements from ladies in politics. Metropolis Council Member Kamillah Hanks, a Staten Island Democrat, mentioned in her assertion endorsing Cuomo that the “unprecedented instances” referred to as for a “sturdy, unapologetic” chief.
Trump, who has himself been accused of sexual misconduct and was discovered liable in 2023 by a New York City jury for sexual abuse, expenses he denied, has additionally reshaped the concept of what’s acceptable conduct for public officers, mentioned Leigh Gilmore, a professor emeritus at Ohio State College and writer of “The #MeToo Impact: What Occurs When We Imagine Ladies.”
“The political winds have shifted with Trump being in workplace, the place it’s not agreed anymore that these are disqualifying allegations,” she mentioned.
“What Cuomo is betting on is that New York City will say, ‘We’d like a robust man,’” she mentioned.
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Related Press reporter Jennifer Peltz contributed.
