Governor Andrew Cuomo daily press conference on COVID-19 pandemic at MTA New York City Transit Corona Maintenance Facility in Queens, May 2, 2020.
Lev Radin | Pacific Press | LightRocket via Getty Images
A former assistant to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday accused the governor of kissing her without her consent while serving as deputy secretary for economic development in 2018.
Lindsey Boylan, now running for President of Manhattan, published a detailed account of her allegations against her former boss in a blog post. Boylan made her allegations of intimidation against the governor public in December, although she did not go into details at the time.
Caitlin Girouard, Cuomo’s press secretary, said in a statement, “Ms. Boylan’s allegations of inappropriate behavior are simply false.”
In the same press release from Cuomo’s office, four other members of his staff disputed a single detail of Boylan’s account. Boylan wrote that while on a plane from a 2017 event in Western New York with the governor, a press officer and state soldier, Cuomo said to her, “Let’s play strip poker.” Cuomo’s office published a report of all flights as of October 2017, saying, “There was no flight where Lindsey was alone with the governor, a single press officer and a NYS Trooper.”
The record does show that Boylan was on several flights with the governor and other members of his staff. But the four Cuomo staffers said in a statement accompanying the press release, “We were on each of these October flights and this conversation didn’t take place.”
The new details emerged as Cuomo fights allegations of mishandling of nursing home data and policies at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York last year.
The United States Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into coronavirus deaths in nursing homes across the state. New York Attorney General Letitia James, Cuomo’s fellow Democrat, released a report last month saying the state had underreported Covid-19 nursing home deaths by as much as 50%.
Cuomo’s behavior towards colleagues has been re-examined after New York Assemblyman Ron Kim accused the governor of ‘destroying’ him after Kim criticized Cuomo’s handling of the nursing home outbreaks. Cuomo’s senior advisor denied that Kim’s claim is true.
In her blog post Wednesday, Boylan referenced Kim’s allegations and expanded on herself, including screenshots of emails from her time with the governor.
Lindsey Boylan attends the 9th Annual Elly Awards hosted by the New York Women’s Forum on June 17, 2019 in New York City.
Mike Coppola | Getty Images
Boylan said that after she first met the governor in 2016, her boss told her that Cuomo was “in love” with her. She said she later complained to friends that he would “go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs.”
She also claimed that Cuomo made “unflattering comments about the weight of female colleagues” and “made fun of them about their romantic relationships and significant others.”
“I tried to apologize for his behavior,” Boylan wrote. ‘I said to myself’ it’s just words’. But that changed after a one-on-one briefing with the governor to keep him up to date on economic and infrastructure projects. We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue. When I got up to leave and walked to an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed my lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking. “
Boylan wrote that she feared a co-worker had seen the kiss and wrote, “The idea that anyone would think I was in my high position because of the governor’s ‘infatuation’ was more humiliating than the kiss itself.”
Boylan said she announced her resignation in September 2018.
She also shared a screenshot from a 2016 email that appeared to be from Stephanie Benton, director of the governor’s offices, in which she said Cuomo Boylan suggested looking up photos of his rumored former girlfriend because “Your sisters may be to be. . “
She accused senior women in Cuomo’s office of creating a culture that “normalized” their boss’s behavior by naming top assistant Melissa DeRosa by name. She said two other women contacted her about their own experiences with the governor after posting her original allegations online in December.
“One of them described how she lived in constant fear, afraid of what would happen to her if she rejected the governor’s advances,” Boylan wrote. The other said she had been instructed by the governor to warn staff members who upset him that their jobs might be in danger. Both told me they are too scared to speak out. ‘
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