Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and current candidate for Manhattan borough president, published a blog post on Wednesday that elaborated on her previous accusations of sexual harassment against Cuomo.
She accused Cuomo of kissing her without consent, said he “went out of his way” to touch her lower back, made comments about her appearance and suggested games of strip poker. Boylan said the incidents made her mother worried about her being “alone with him.”
A representative for Cuomo’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Boylan wrote that there are “many more” women with stories of harassment by the governor, “but most are too afraid to speak up.” She noted, however, that at least one other former staffer had reached out to her with similar stories before she tweeted her initial accusations back in December 2020, and two more reached out after.
Part of the Medium blog post details her worries about retribution after those tweets, but added, “I’m compelled to tell my story because no woman should feel forced to hide their experiences of workplace intimidation, harassment and humiliation — not by the Governor or anyone else.”
Boylan also accused Cuomo’s top staffers of enabling his bad behavior and said she expects to be smeared for her post because Cuomo’s staffers would be fired for not defending him: “That’s how his administration works. I know because I was a part of it.”
Cuomo, a Democrat who has served as New York’s governor since 2011, has recently come under fire for his handling of COVID cases in the state’s nursing homes, including the deliberate under-counting of the number of nursing home deaths since the pandemic began. The administration now faces inquiries from the FBI and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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