Note: This post examines publicly available information and defense-raised challenges.
Accuser #5
Executive Assistant #1’s was responsible for assisting the Governor in managing incoming and outgoing telephone calls, taking dictation, drafting and editing documents, and performing other similar administrative tasks, including at the Executive Mansion on the weekend.
The allegations / what was left out
increasing familiarity and intimacy The AG report says, “The Governor’s behavior
ranged from playful banter about Executive Assistant #1’s potential romantic
relationships to looking through Executive Assistant #1’s social media posts
and asking about the marital status and social and dating lives of
Executive Assistant #1 and her friend, Alyssa McGrath, who also served as an
executive assistant in the Executive Chamber.”
However, Cuomo does not use social media. Even in the Politico article about the lawmakers
who were going to “takedown” Cuomo, it was said, “Their strategy was
clear: use the digital space to
outmaneuver the governor, a notorious technophobe.”
Take off the hoodie
Executive Assistant #1 was working at the Executive Mansion on a
weekend and commented that it was warm in the room. Cuomo suggested in response that Executive
Assistant #1 take off her zip-up hoodie, which she had been wearing on top of a
light tank top. “A colleague of
Executive Assistant #1 was present and corroborated the incident.” Is this mystery colleague Alyssa McGrath? There is a footnote that states “In her
testimony, Ms. McGrath corroborated much of Executive Assistant #1’s sworn
testimony. Ms. McGrath’s own allegations regarding Governor Cuomo are detailed
later in the Report.”
McGrath and Executive Assistant #1 were close friends since
high school and McGrath is listed as Executive Assistant #1 emergency contact
at work. It would be nice to know if anyone else could give testimony except
her best friend.
Mingle mamas Cuomo
engaged in a conversation about a trip to Florida that the two women planned to
take together in April. Cuomo asked McGrath, who was separated from her husband
at the time, whether she planned to go and “mingle” with men during the Florida
trip. Cuomo then asked McGrath whether she would “tell on” Executive Assistant
#1 if Executive Assistant #1 cheated on her husband while in Florida. Cuomo
proceeded to refer to both women as “mingle mamas” for the remainder of the
day. Cuomo admitted in his testimony that he had called Executive Assistant #1
and McGrath “mingle mamas,” but testified that it was in response to Executive
Assistant #1 and McGrath stating that they were “single and ready to mingle.” No notes that anyone else heard any of this
but it’s listed as fact because her best friend vouched for her.
Intimate physical contact-the selfie Per the AG report, “On December 31, 2019,
Executive Assistant #1 was assisting Cuomo in his office at the Executive
Mansion when Cuomo asked her to take a “selfie” photograph with him. Cuomo stood next to Executive Assistant #1,
on her left, as she took a selfie with her right hand. As Executive Assistant
#1 held up the camera, Cuomo moved his
hand to grab her butt cheek and began to rub it. The rubbing lasted at least five seconds. Executive Assistant #1 was shaking so much
during this interaction that her initial selfies with Cuomo were very blurry.
At Cuomo’s suggestion, the two of them then sat down and took one more selfie,
with Cuomo’s hands around Executive Assistant #1’s waist. Cuomo then told
Executive Assistant #1 to send the photograph to McGrath, and directed
Executive Assistant #1 not to share the photograph with anyone else.”
How is this absolute proof of her butt being grabbed? She doesn’t look nervous or terrified. And McGrath’s response to the picture,
Intimate physical contact-the holiday photo At the 2019 holiday party, before a photograph was taken, Cuomo kissed McGrath on the forehead and kissed Executive Assistant #1 on the cheek, then posed for a photograph with his hands firmly around both women’s ribcages, just below their breasts.
It’s actually called your waist and that’s usually where a hand goes during a photo. There is also the manner they are standing in. Also about the picture is a footnote buried at the bottom of the page.
Intimate physical contact-the incident “On November 16, 2020, Stephanie Benton, the Director of the Governor’s Offices, asked Executive Assistant #1 to assist Cuomo at the Executive Mansion. As Executive Assistant #1 finished her assignment and prepared to leave the Governor’s personal office, on the second floor in the Mansion, and return to the Capitol, Cuomo pulled Executive Assistant #1 in for a close hug. Executive Assistant #1 was conscious that the door to Cuomo’s office (facing out into the hallway on the second floor) was open at the time. Executive Assistant #1 stepped away from Cuomo and said, “You’re going to get us in trouble,” to which Cuomo replied, “I don’t care,” and slammed the door shut. Executive Assistant #1 testified that Cuomo’s demeanor at the time “wasn’t like ‘ha ha,’ it was like, ‘I don’t care.’ . . . It was like in this—at that moment he was sexually driven. I could tell and the way he said it, I could tell.” Cuomo then returned to Executive Assistant #1 and slid his hand up her blouse, and grabbed her breast, “cupp[ing her] breast” over her bra.”
At McGrath’s birthday party, Executive Assistant #1 confided
in Executive Assistant #2 that Cuomo had grabbed her and reached under her
shirt. Still upset, Executive Assistant #1 visited Executive Assistant #2’s
house the next day with her boyfriend and Executive Assistant #3. There,
Executive Assistant #2’s boyfriend, an FBI employee, recommended she speak with
a lawyer, whom she later retained. Believing they were required to report what
happened, Executive Assistants #2 and #3 informed Judy Mogul, Special Counsel
to the Governor and Beth Garvey, acting
counsel for Andrew Cuomo, on March 8, stating Cuomo had touched Executive
Assistant #1 and gone under her shirt. They also mistakenly reported that Cuomo
pushed her against a wall, which Executive Assistant #1 denied. The call lasted
just a few minutes, and Mogul thanked them for coming forward.
On March 9, the Times Union published an article describing
the allegations of an anonymous current aide in the Executive Chamber, who was
alleging that Cuomo had groped her while at the Executive Mansion. Executive
Assistant #1 testified that she had not communicated with the press in advance
of the March 9 article about her allegations and that she had been shocked at
the publication of the Times Union article.
The public learned that Executive Assistant #1 was Brittany
Commisso on August 8, 2021. Excerpts of her interview with CBS News were
released on the 8th and the full interview airing the following
morning, August 9, on CBS This Morning.
The Albany Times Union published an exclusive story simultaneously.
The AG report found Executive Assistant #1 to be credible “both
in demeanor and in the substance of her allegations.”
What shows up in her testimony but not in the AG report is
the confusion over her coat and the lawyers leading her. (breakdown from
Justice for Cuomo)
There is also the information that Rita Glavin gave concerning Cuomo’s schedule on the day in question
Also never mentioned or followed up is Commisso told Cuomo in or around November that because she was going through a divorce, she needed a different work schedule. She told him the divorce created financial pressure. She spoke in late 2020 and early 2021 to her supervisors about having to leave early, She asked for a raise and more overtime hours on weekends. They denied the raise and made no other promises. Her husband filed for divorce, and a summons with notice is recorded at Albany County Clerk on February 22, 2021, with Brittany Commisso as the defendant.
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