Gov. Cuomo To Be Questioned on Sexual Harassment Allegations by NY AG This Weekend: Report
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) will be questioned regarding the sexual harassment allegations against him by the New York Attorney General’s office this weekend, according to reports by several media outlets.
Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) announced the investigation in March after multiple women came forward to accuse the governor of sexual harassment and misconduct. Cuomo has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The New York Times reported that Joon Kim and Anne Clark, two outside attorneys hired by James to lead the investigation, are expected to conduct Cuomo’s interview in Albany, the state capital. To date, their work has included gathering hours of testimony from Cuomo’s accusers and officials in his administration and what the Times described as “troves of records.”
CNN’s Anderson Cooper discussed the news in a segment with crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz, who called it “certainly a significant development” in the investigation that the governor was going to sit down with investigators and be directly questioned.
The interview, continued Prokupecz, was expected to be under oath and would be recorded in some fashion, although the details had not yet been publicly confirmed. “Any good lawyer would set some parameters when investigators plan to question one of their clients,” he observed.
The AG’s office had not announced a deadline or a timeline for the investigation, but the news that Cuomo would be questioned was viewed as a sign that the investigation was nearing its conclusion, which will involve a public report of the findings. Investigators may still call other witnesses for questioning, or even call Cuomo back for additional questioning.
Cooper asked about what “potential legal consequences” could come from the investigation.
“It depends on what’s in the report — certainly if there’s some criminal finding,” Prokupecz replied, “it would be referred to the district attorney in Albany, because a lot of these accusations stem from activity that occurred in Albany.”
Richard Azzopardi, a senior Cuomo adviser, told CNN in a statement, “We have said repeatedly that the Governor doesn’t want to comment on this review until he has cooperated, but the continued leaks are more evidence of the transparent political motivation of the Attorney General’s review.” Azzopardi gave a similar statement to the Times, which noted that he “provided no evidence that the attorney general was leaking information.”
The attorney general is also investigating nursing home deaths in New York from Covid-19, as well as allegations that Cuomo misused state resources to research, write, and promote his memoir about the pandemic.
Watch the video above, via CNN.
