Former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to Be Arrested: Report
Former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo will likely be charged with a misdemeanor and arrested next week regarding an alleged groping charge involving a former staff member, according to multiple reports.
The New York Post first reported the news Thursday that followed a probe by Albany County District Attorney David Soars.
“Cuomo’s looming arrest is believed to be the reason that Attorney General Letitia James decided to tell a key union leader on Wednesday that she’ll launch a campaign for governor ‘shortly,’” the report said.
An August report said Cuomo had been accused of harassing 11 women, including nine state workers. The governor resigned shortly after the report was released.
Even during his resignation, however, Cuomo did not admit any wrongdoing.
Now the disgraced governor may be forced to prove his innocence in a court of law.
The Albany County Criminal Court issued a criminal summons for Cuomo with charges of “forcible touching,” a Class A misdemeanor, a court clerk told New York Focus.
The clerk said that the local sheriff’s department filed the charges.
The Albany County Sheriff’s Department would not comment on the matter.
“We have no comment for that at this time,” a sheriff’s department representative told the outlet. “We are not confirming or denying.”
Cuomo faced the barrage of sexual harassment allegations after he was widely hailed nationally for his detailed daily briefings and leadership during the darkest days of COVID-19.
The three-term governor’s resignation was announced as momentum built in the Legislature to remove him by impeachment.
Investigators said he subjected women to unwanted kisses; groped their breasts or buttocks or otherwise touched them inappropriately; made insinuating remarks about their looks and their sex lives; and created a work environment “rife with fear and intimidation.”
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a 62-year-old Democrat and former member of Congress from the Buffalo area, became the state’s 57th governor and the first woman to hold the post.
The string of accusations that spelled the governor’s downfall began to unfold in news reports last December and continued for months.
Cuomo called some of the allegations fabricated, forcefully denying he touched anyone inappropriately.
However, the governor acknowledged making some aides uncomfortable with comments he said he intended as playful, and he apologized for some of his behavior.
He portrayed some of the encounters as misunderstandings attributable to “generational or cultural” differences, a reference, in part, to his upbringing in an affectionate Italian-American family.
As a defiant Cuomo clung to office, state lawmakers launched an impeachment investigation, and nearly the entire Democratic establishment in New York deserted him — not only over the accusations but also because of the discovery that his administration had concealed thousands of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home patients.
The harassment investigation ordered up by the attorney general and conducted by outside lawyers corroborated the women’s accounts and added new ones.
The release of the report left the governor with some of his most loyal supporters abandoning him and President Joe Biden joining those who called on him to resign.
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