Cuomo Executive Assistant Describes Escalating Misconduct That Was 'Certainly Not Consensual'

By John Wagner, The Washington Post

09 August 21

 

rittany Commisso, an executive assistant to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), described in a television interview broadcast Monday a series of escalating episodes of unwelcome sexual advances about which she remained silent for fear of getting fired.

“These were not hugs that he would give his mother or, you know, his brother,” Commisso said of Cuomo. “These were hugs with the intention of giving him personal sexual satisfaction. … Then they started to be hugs with kisses on the cheek, and then at one point there was a hug and then when we went to go kiss me on the cheek, he quickly turned his head and he kissed me on the lips.”

Commisso, who was jointly interviewed by “CBS This Morning” and the Albany Times Union, was previously identified only as “Executive Assistant #1” in a report released Tuesday by state Attorney General Letitia James (D) after a lengthy investigation into numerous sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo.

On Thursday, Commisso also filed a criminal complaint against Cuomo with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, alleging that Cuomo groped her breast in the governor’s mansion in Albany. Cuomo has denied the allegations.

During the interview, Commisso said Cuomo reached under her blouse and “cupped my breast over my bra” during the encounter, the exact date of which she could not remember.

“I exactly remember looking down, seeing his hand, which is a large hand, thinking to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is happening?’” she said. “It happened so quick. He didn’t say anything when I stopped it. He just pulled away and walked away.”

The interview with Commisso, portions of which CBS aired on Sunday, comes as the New York State Assembly is set to move forward with an expedited impeachment process Monday. Commisso told CBS that she recently met with impeachment investigators.

“I didn’t say anything this whole time,” Commisso said of episodes with Cuomo that she has said occurred in 2019 and 2020, turning what she described as “a dream job” into “a nightmare.”

“People don’t understand that this is the governor of the state of New York,” she said. “There are troopers that are outside of the mansion, and there are some mansion staff. Those troopers that are there, they are not there to protect me. They are there to protect him. I felt as though if I did something to insult him, especially insult him in his own home, it wasn’t going to be him that was going to get fired or in trouble.”

Asked if any of the interactions she described with Cuomo were consensual, Commisso said they were not.

“Maybe to him … he thought this was normal, but to me and the other women that he did this to, it was not normal,” Commisso said. “It was not welcomed, and it was certainly not consensual.”

Commisso said that Cuomo “needs to be held accountable.”

When asked to clarify if that meant seeing Cuomo charged with a crime, Commisso nodded in the affirmative.

“What he did to me was a crime,” she said. “He broke the law.”

Commisso also that Cuomo should resign and seek counseling, saying he needs “professional help.”

In a news conference Friday, Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin questioned Commisso’s account of the alleged breast-groping.

She said a reconstruction of the events of Nov. 16, a possible date of the incident given in the report, showed that the assistant was on a different floor from the governor for much of the day and that she did not leave abruptly but offered to continue working late at the mansion. Glavin said records show that Nov. 16 was the only day in November that Commisso entered the mansion.

Commisso said she has found Cuomo’s denial of her claims “disgusting.”

“It’s simple,” she said. “I know the truth. He knows the truth. I know what happened, and so does he.”

Cuomo is facing a growing number of calls to resign, including from President Biden and other top Democrats.

On Sunday night, Cuomo’s top aide resigned after the release of James’s report that detailed her role in an effort to discredit a former aide who accused Cuomo of harassment.

Melissa DeRosa, who held the title of secretary to the governor, served as his fiercest defender and top aide since 2017 and was considered the ultimate loyalist after working for him for the past decade.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve the people of New York for the past 10 years,” DeRosa said in a statement late Sunday. “New Yorkers’ resilience, strength, and optimism through the most difficult times has inspired me every day. Personally, the past 2 years have been emotionally and mentally trying. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such talented and committed colleagues on behalf of our state.”