Search Articles
ALBANY (CN) — The state of New York has agreed to pay out a settlement of “nearly half a million dollars” to resolve sexual harassment claims brought against former Governor Andrew Cuomo by a former aide who accused him of groping her breast at the governor’s executive mansion.
The settlement resolves civil claims of persistent sexual harassment brought against the state and the three-term Democrat governor by Brittany Commisso, a former aide who accused Cuomo in a civil complaint of subjecting her to “a pattern of brazenly inappropriate sexual comments, which escalated over time into non-consensual sexual touching.”
“Ms. Commisso is proud to have reported the truth and vindicated her rights in court, and likewise glad to be able to move forward with her life,” attorney Mariann Wang said in a statement Friday afternoon.
Commisso said in her complaint, filed in Albany state Supreme Court, that the escalating pattern of unwanted sexual touching reached an apex on Dec. 7, 2020, when she alleges Cuomo reached into her blouse during a hug and proceeded to grope her breast over her bra.
She said he continued to retaliate against her in the years after he resigned in disgrace in August 2021, facing a slate of sexual harassment allegations.
“Even after he resigned and as a former governor, Cuomo has continued to use his power and enormous financial resources to attack Commisso for reporting his unlawful behavior, including by spreading and encouraging falsehoods about Commisso directly and through his agents in demeaning and harmful ways.”
While the state of New York settled the complaint, Cuomo’s camp says it opposes the dismissal of Commisso’s lawsuit “because it is in the public interest for the public to see the evidence that New York taxpayers paid to obtain.”
“This nuisance settlement, which expressly does not include any admission of liability, is intended to end Ms. Commisso’s failed efforts to leverage a meritless lawsuit into a multimillion-dollar payday while hiding the truth from the public,” a Cuomo spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. “Until the truth is revealed, the lawsuit should not be dismissed.”
According to findings by the New York attorney general’s office made public in August 2021, Commisso intended to take her experiences of harassment by the governor “to the grave” but found herself becoming emotional while watching Cuomo state, at a press conference on March 3, 2021, that he had never “touched anyone inappropriately."
She said she then disclosed the incidents in confidence to her colleagues, who in turn reported her allegations to senior staff in the Executive Chamber.
The $450,000 settlement reached in Commisso’s case matches the same amount reached to settle separate claims brought against Cuomo by former executive assistant Charlotte Bennet, who came forward in The New York Times in February 2021, recalling that Cuomo had asked her inappropriate questions about her sex life, including whether she ever had sex with older men.
$350,000 of Bennet’s settlement was earmarked for legal fees.
Bennet accused Cuomo of using the looming litigation to harass her and her family over several years. “His abusive filings and invasive subpoenas are meant to humiliate and retaliate against me and those who have supported me over the last five years of this living nightmare,” she wrote in a statement.
Cuomo, 67, is currently mounting a campaign for New York City mayor as an independent candidate in the fall general election following his Democratic primary defeat last month to progressive state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
He has strongly denied sexual harassment claims lodged by multiple women.
Follow @jruss_jrussSubscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.