Cuomo Accuser Claims NY Governor Skipped Out of Sexual Harassment Training, Had Female Aide Complete It for Him

Former Cuomo staffer Charlotte Bennett claimed that the New York governor did not undergo the state’s mandatory workplace sexual harassment training — and instead had another female aide complete it for him.

Bennett’s assertion came during the second half of an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell, which aired on Friday. In the first part of O’Donnell’s interview with Bennett, which aired the day before, the former Cuomo aide called him a “textbook accuser” who, she thought, was emboldened to allegedly proposition her because “he felt like he was untouchable.”

After O’Donnell noted that it was Cuomo who championed a law making it easier for women to prove sexual harassment and that mandated harassment training in all workplaces, Bennett accused the governor of not personally following his own law.

“On Wednesday, the governor was asked if he took the training,” O’Donnell pointed out, before playing a clip of Cuomo’s response: “The short answer is yes.”

Bennett, however, Cuomo skipped out on the training two years ago.

“In 2019, he did not take the sexual harassment training,” Bennett said.

“How do you know that?” O’Donnell pressed.

“I was there,” Bennett replied. “I heard [Cuomo Executive Secretary] Stephanie [Benton] say: ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this for you,’ and making a joke about the fact that she was completing the training for him, and then I heard her, at the end, ask him to sign the certificate.”

Benton responded to that claim with a statement to CBS News, saying he “categorically denies” that conversation took place, calling the charge “not true.”

Watch the video above, via CBS News.