Two years after he resigned as New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, a once rising star in Democratic politics, continues to challenge an investigation that found he sexually harassed nearly a dozen women while in office.
The ongoing battle is now playing out around a lawsuit filed last year by a New York state trooper who claims Cuomo sexually harassed her on the job. The lawsuit pointed to similar accusations from 10 other women to bolster her case, which were all lifted from a 2021 report from state Attorney General Letitia James’ office that preceded the governor’s decision to quit his job.
Now, the former governor and his inner circle are doubling down on their yearslong quest to repair his reputation, despite claims from his accusers that it amounts to retaliation. Cuomo — who denies the allegations — and his attorneys are trying to use the anonymous trooper’s extensive citations to their advantage by issuing subpoenas to some of the accusers in the AG’s report, to their cellphone providers and even a former state senator.
Cuomo’s team argues that the subpoenas — several of which are being challenged — are fair game and necessary to mount a defense, since the report forms the basis of some of the trooper’s lawsuit.
“Anyone with a set of eyes can see the holes in Trooper 1’s complaint, which rips off the AG’s discredited report,” said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo and a co-defendant in the lawsuit.
But attorneys for the women who accused Cuomo of various forms of misconduct say the subpoenas are too broad and are an intimidation tactic by the former governor, whose millions of dollars in defense costs will ultimately be reimbursed by taxpayers under state law.
In a letter to the court, Danya Perry — an attorney for Lindsey Boylan, a former Cuomo administration aide who was the first to accuse the governor of harassment in 2021 — put it this way: “Mr. Cuomo has nothing but time and money to burn, and a public narrative he…
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