You need to know both sides. Accuser #1

There are things I believe in.  “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  “Don’t pick sides until you know the full story…Some people are really skilled at making others look bad.”  “Innocent until proven guilty.”  ‘No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”

I believe that women’s allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment should be taken seriously.  However, there are many reasons why it never gets reported:     fear of retaliation or negative consequences; fear of not being believed or being blamed; shame or guilt; lack of faith in the system or process; desire to move on from it.  A person should not be dismissed because they are a woman or held in high regard because they are a man.  The facts and the truth should always be the goal.  However, I don’t believe all women no more than I believe all men.  That has recently gotten me called misogynistic.  Everyone isn’t right all the time.

Andrew Cuomo has always been criticized for using aggressive political tactics, having an abusive workplace environment and being a bully, but that is where it has always stopped.

Note:  This post examines publicly available information and defense-raised challenges.

Lindsey Boylan worked for Andrew Cuomo from 2015 to her resignation in September 2018.  During that time, she was Vice President at Empire State Development, Chief of Staff at Empire State Development, Deputy Secretary for Economic Development and then Special Advisor to the Governor. 

On September 26, 2018, Boylan was called into a meeting that involved Alphonse David, who was then counsel to Cuomo.  The meeting was described as a “counseling session”/discussion to address complaints from staff about her alleged behavior of belittling, yelling at or bullying subordinates.  During the meeting, Boylan voluntarily tendered her resignation.  David was “clear that she was not being asked to resign, fired or pushed out in any way.” And the meeting was documented as stated in the AG report.  After the meeting, she sent a mass email informing staff members of her resignation.

On December 13, 2020, Lindsey Boylan made her first public accusation against Andrew Cuomo.  Not to him, not to Human Resources, not to the police but in a series of tweets, where she stated Cuomo had “sexually harassed me for years.”  Boylan said she spoke up now after hearing from another former staffer.

Cuomo held a press conference denying the claims outright, saying “it’s just not true”. (Coincidentally, her tweets came out when there was conversation of Cuomo becoming U.S. Attorney General.)

On February 24, 2021, Boylan describe several specific events in her Medium essay titled "My story of working with Governor Cuomo.”

Key specific events she described include:

January 6, 2016: Her first in-person encounter with Cuomo at a Madison Square Garden event promoting the Pennsylvania Station-Farley Complex project. She described as uncomfortable interactions, including comments on her appearance.

December 14, 2016: An email from aide Stephanie Benton relaying that Cuomo suggested Boylan resembled his rumored former girlfriend "Lisa Shields" (calling her the "better looking sister"), after which he began calling her "Lisa" in front of colleagues, which she found degrading.

October 2017: On a government plane flight after a Western New York event, Cuomo allegedly said to her, "Let’s play strip poker." She described this as crude and part of a pattern.

2018 (specific one-on-one briefing, shortly before her September 26, 2018 resignation): In his Manhattan office during a private update on economic and infrastructure projects, Cuomo allegedly stepped in front of her as she was leaving, blocked the door, and forcibly kissed her on the lips without consent. She said she was in shock but continued walking out. This was a pivotal incident she cited as contributing to her decision to resign.

This was the New York Attorney General’s assessment: 

“Most of the allegations that Ms. Boylan has made against the Governor are now essentially uncontested. For example, although the intent is in dispute, there is no serious question that (1) the Governor commented on Ms. Boylan’s appearance, including comparing her to someone who was an ex-girlfriend; (2) the Governor on occasion touched Ms. Boylan on the waist, leg, and back; (3) the Governor gave Ms. Boylan a tour of his office that included the cigar box from President Clinton; (4) Ms. Boylan received a rose from the Governor for Valentine’s Day; and (5) the Governor thought she did good work and paid attention to her at events. While the Governor vehemently denied, and others did not recall, the “strip poker” comment, Mr. Zemsky testified under oath that he recalls the Governor making such a comment, independently corroborating Ms. Boylan. And with respect to the alleged kiss on the lips, although the Governor again denied it, he has admitted that, on occasion, he has kissed members of his staff on the lips. Thus, despite the intensity of the attacks on Ms. Boylan by the Governor and others within and outside of the Executive Chamber, and the refusal to even consider the possibility that she may have felt harassed, most of the factual allegations that Ms. Boylan has made are not disputed and those that are have corroboration, including in the allegations by the other complainants of similar conduct. What the Governor disputes is his intent and the way in which he believes Ms. Boylan perceived the interactions. Thus, regardless of whether Ms. Boylan may have had political or other personal motivation for making her allegations public, we find that the factual allegations she has made are credible and supported by the rest of the evidence in our investigation.”

Cuomo issued statements and held briefings apologizing for any offense caused by his “collegial” or “too familiar” behavior, but denied the inappropriate touching, advances or harassment.  He called some interactions misinterpreted.

So let’s breakdown the AG’s “factual allegations”.

“Let’s play strip poker”  despite everyone denying that this happened, this is considered credible because Howard Zemsky (Boylan’s former boss at Empire State Development) said it was a fact.  Zemsky also told Boylan that the governor appeared to have a “crush” on her.  However, the AG never bothered to make public the fact that Boylan and Zemsky had a sexual encounter in 2017 and she used that encounter to threaten Zemsky into changing his testimony.  

The Rose  Boylan did receive a rose from the Governor’s office on Valentine’s Day. Other female staff members also did and there is no proof that she was specifically singled out. Sometimes a rose is just a rose.

The Cigar Box  Cuomo has the highest regard for Bill Clinton and this gift from Clinton is important to him.  Cuomo showed off the cigar box to Boylan during a tour. To assert that this was an intentional sexual reference is a stretch for anyone and absurd that the AG would call this factual.

He Touched Her  Boylan said Cuomo would touch her in passing, touched her back during a photo and would always sit where he could see her.  There are no details to these events or witnesses.

Her Appearance  Boylan received an email from Stephanie Benton where Cuomo compares her to a former girlfriend.  The email is Exhibit 58 of the report and in her testimony Benton says Cuomo only said to tell Boylan to look Lisa up, the comparison came from Benton.

 

What nobody told you  Prior to the December 2020 accusation, Boylan had nothing but nice things to say about Cuomo.

Boylan told Robert Mujica (Director of the Division of the Budget) that she was frustrated about her work at the Executive Chamber due to inability to access or speak directly with Cuomo, which contradicts that Cuomo was singling her out.

Boylan ran for the United States House of Representatives to represent New York’s 10^th Congressional District.  On March 14, 2020, Governor Cuomo issued an Executive Order shortening the petition period for primary election candidates to reduce the spread of the Covid virus for all candidates.  Boylan reacted by sending strongly worded text messages to senior Executive Chamber employees.

In November 2020, Boylan announced her candidacy for Manhattan Borough President. On December 5, she posted her toxic workplace tweets.  Shortly after, Boylan was contacted by Charlotte Bennett and Bennett offered to help her.  Boylan’s story went from toxic workplace to sexual harassment.

Also in December, there were phone conversations between Boylan’s campaign consultant, Trip Yang and Ibrahim Khan, Letitia James’ chief of staff. Trip Yang was Letitia James’ consultant to her 2018 AG campaign.  Nothing was ever released stating what the conversations were about.

 

Lindsey Boylan has the right to have her thoughts and feelings taken seriously and investigated.  BUT why are these accusations not in full context and allowed to go unchallenged?  Cuomo was never allowed to defend himself and has never received all of the evidence against him.  Claims this serious should have required serious investigation.

The next posts will go thru the other accusations.