Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is suing a former statehouse aide for defamation, claiming that her accusations of sexual harassment prompted “a cascade of hurt,” and ruined him “each personally and professionally.”
In a summons and see filed Thursday morning and obtained by The Impartial, Cuomo insists Bennett “straight undermine[d]” her personal allegations in “tens of hundreds of contemporaneous textual content and video messages,” and that she withheld this proof from New York State Lawyer Normal Letitia James, who discovered that the ex-governor made inappropriate advances towards a number of girls working underneath him. James’s investigation additionally discovered that Cuomo retaliated in opposition to at the least certainly one of his accusers for going public along with her complaints.
“Amongst different issues, the false accusations she publicized within the nationwide media had been a major consider requires an investigation into Governor Cuomo’s conduct,” Cuomo’s submitting states.
Public stress following James’s report led Cuomo to step down from workplace in 2021. He has lately floated the potential of mounting a political comeback, producing hypothesis — and constenation amongst Democrats — that he might run for New York Metropolis mayor. One other of the previous governor’s accusers, ex-aide Brittany Commisso, mentioned she discovered Cuomo’s need to reenter politics “unhappy.”
Cuomo’s submitting, docketed in New York State Supreme Court docket, calls James’s findings “biased, deceptive, and inaccurate,” and slams the AG for taking Bennett “at her phrase… with out acquiring or reviewing substantial materials related proof.”
On Thursday, Cuomo’s legal professional, Rita Glavin, declined to touch upon the submitting, telling The Impartial, “We’re simply going to let this one communicate for itself.”
Debra Katz, Bennett’s legal professional, mentioned in a press release that sexual harassment accusers have lengthy been subjected to defamation fits to “silence and punish” them, including, “It’s shameful that Mr. Cuomo has apparently now chosen to go down that path.”
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In an emailed assertion to The Impartial, former NYS State Senate staffer Erica Vladimer, who co-founded the Sexual Harassment Working Group in 2018 after allegedly receiving an undesirable advance from her then-boss, known as Cuomo’s intention to sue “outrageous,” and mentioned he’s “utilizing the judicial system to additional victimize Charlotte Bennett… whereas threatening anybody else into silence.”
Bennett, 28, filed a federal intercourse harassment lawsuit in opposition to the 67-year-old Cuomo in September 2022 however voluntarily dropped it earlier this month. In a press release issued December 9, the day she withdrew her go well with, Bennett mentioned, “Former Governor Andrew Cuomo can not use this lawsuit to harass me and my household. His abusive filings and invasive subpoenas are supposed to humiliate and retaliate in opposition to me and those that have supported me during the last 5 years of this dwelling nightmare… All through this terribly painful two 12 months case, I’ve many instances believed that I’d be higher off useless than endure extra of his litigation abuse, which has prompted extraordinary ache and expense to my household and mates. I desperately have to stay my life. That’s the selection I’m making right this moment.”
Katz, in her personal companion assertion, mentioned Cuomo had made “an astonishing variety of invasive discovery requests and outrageous statements in pleadings to embarrass and humiliate” Bennett, together with requests for medical data from gynecologists courting again to when she was nonetheless a minor.
“This fishing expedition was designed to dig up materials to smear our shopper and distract from the truth that Mr. Cuomo did, because the New York Lawyer Normal’s Workplace concluded after a prolonged investigation, sexually harass Ms. Bennett and at the least 11 different girls,” Katz mentioned.
Cuomo’s submitting on Thursday contends that Bennett dismissed the go well with so as “to defend the overwhelming proof of her false claims from ever turning into public.” The submitting takes exception to the December 9 statements themselves, calling them “false and defamatory.” He now says Bennett “embellished” her claims in opposition to him, and “weaponized gentle moments within the workplace” by deeming them “humiliating” and “demeaning.”
Cuomo claims that Bennett the truth is “informed household and mates on the time that she discovered these interactions to be hilarious.”
Cuomo argues that Bennett was the one who “deliberately and intentionally initiated private conversations” about her private life, together with one through which she confided that she was a sexual assault survivor. Whereas Bennett later mentioned that the dialog made her really feel “uncomfortable,” Cuomo’s Thursday court docket submitting claims Bennett mentioned on video that it was “superb.” She additionally mentioned Cuomo made suggestive feedback to her, comparable to a comment concerning the massive dimension of his arms.
In a 2021 interview with The New York Instances, Bennett mentioned Cuomo inquired about her private life, telling her that he was amenable to having a relationship with a girl in her 20s. Cuomo denied any improprieties, telling the Instances that he believed he was mentoring Bennett, and that he “by no means made advances towards Ms. Bennett, nor did I ever intend to behave in any approach that was inappropriate.”
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Bennett mentioned on the time that she “understood that the governor wished to sleep with me,” and mentioned this made her really feel “horribly uncomfortable and scared.” Per week after she complained to Cuomo’s then-chief of workers, Bennett was transferred out of Cuomo’s workplace to a different job, which she described in her federal go well with as retaliation.
Nevertheless, Cuomo’s Thursday submitting slams Bennett for the declare, saying she “had wished and sought such a brand new place for a while and particularly requested that place,” and goes on to accuse Bennett of looking for a payday.
Cuomo additional accuses Bennett of turning on him after asking him to overview a speech she deliberate to ship at Hamilton Faculty in Might 2020, claiming she turned upset when his suggestions was “important relatively than laudatory.” In different conversations Bennett flagged as bothersome, Cuomo argues he was merely making an attempt to “test on Bennett’s emotional well-being after she confirmed as much as work showing bodily unwell and after he heard that she was partaking in impulsive and reckless conduct in or across the office.”
“Bennett loved the media highlight, and she or he and her brokers gave quite a few public interviews, together with on nationwide tv broadcasts, repeating her false claims,” Cuomo’s submitting contends. “From day one, Governor Cuomo denied ever having sexually harassed Bennett (or anybody else).”
Cuomo says within the submitting that he “totally intends to clear his identify,” and that he desires to “be certain that Bennett and her brokers by no means once more repeat the falsehood that he sexually harassed Bennett.” He’s looking for compensatory and punitive damages to be decided in court docket.
Bennett’s lawsuit in opposition to New York State, her former employer, stays open.
