A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo detailed her harassment allegations against him in a Medium post on Wednesday.
Lindsey Boylan, a former special adviser to the governor who is now running to be Manhattan borough president, accused Cuomo of sexual harassment in December.
Boylan alleged at the time that Cuomo “harassed” her about her looks but did not provide any details and declined to speak to reporters.
“I have no interest in talking to journalists,” she wrote. “I am about validating the experience of countless women and making sure abuse stops. My worst fear is that this continues… my second worst fear is having to talk about and relive this.”
Cuomo denied the allegation at the time.
“Look, I fought for and I believe a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion and express issues and concerns that she has,” Cuomo said. “But it’s just not true.”
Boylan says Cuomo kissed her:
Boylan said in a Medium essay that Cuomo suggested they play “strip poker” during a flight in 2017.
In another incident in 2016, her boss told her that Cuomo told her to look up his rumored former girlfriend Lisa Shields because “we could be sisters” but I was “the better looking sister.”
She alleged that after a one-on-one meeting “as I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips.”
Boylan alleged that it was part of a pattern of harassment that was directed at other women as well.
Boylan ultimately resigned in 2018.
“There is a part of me that will never forgive myself for being a victim for so long, for trying to ignore behavior that I knew was wrong,” she wrote. “The Governor exploited my weaknesses, my desire to do good work and to be respected. I was made to believe this was the world I needed to survive in.”
Cuomo’s office denies part of allegation:
Cuomo’s press secretary Caitlin Girouard denied the allegation that Cuomo suggested they play strip poker on a flight but did not comment on the other claims.
"As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false," Girouard said in a statement, adding that "there was no flight where Lindsey was alone with the Governor, a single press aide, and a NYS Trooper."
"We were on each of these October flights and this conversation did not happen," Cuomo adviser John Maggiore, Empire State Development CEO Howard Zemsky, former Cuomo aide Dani Lever and former press secretary Abbey Fashouer Collins said in a statement.
