NY Assembly Rolls Out Report on Cuomo's Sex Harassment, COVID-19 Response & Nursing Home Scandal

The embattled former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been fending off many accusations, beginning with the scandal around the COVID-19 death toll in New York nursing homes and ending with allegations that he sexually harassed multiple employees.

The New York Assembly has released a report detailing "profoundly disturbing" findings that former governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed a dozen women, among them seven staffers, hid the actual number of coronavirus-related deaths in New York nursing homes, and misused state resources in order to pen a book about his COVID response.

Sex Scandal

According to the report, the former governor "engaged in multiple instances of sexual harassment, including by creating a hostile work environment and engaging in sexual misconduct."

The new report increases the number of women sexually harassed by Cuomo to 12 from the 11 previously listed in the August report by state Attorney General Letitia James that was released earlier in August.

The additional accusation of sexual harassment comes from a non-staffer, 55-year-old Sherry Vill, who is a married mother of three. Vill alleges that the then-governor kissed her without consent several times when he toured her home in 2017 after it was damaged by flooding. "Ms. Vill said that none of her family members, nor any neighbour who had met the then-Governor during the same visit, received an invitation to the event," the report went on. "Ms. Vill also later received signed photos from the then-Governor’s visit; neither her family members nor her neighbours received photographs either."

Nursing Homes Death Toll

The Assembly report has concluded that Cuomo was "not fully transparent regarding the number of nursing home residents who died as a result of COVID-19."

Moreover, a report that his administration rolled out last July in regard to the matter was found to be fashioned in order to “combat criticisms” of his policies and was “substantially revised by the Executive Chamber."

The scandal erupted back in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020, when, according to the report, "for a period of approximately two weeks in April and/or May 2020, certain fatalities in nursing home facilities due to COVID-19 were not included in the [Department of Health] published data."

COVID Response Book

The former governor, however, penned a book touting his coronavirus response, titled "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic." But the Assembly report asserts that Cuomo "utilised state resources and property, including work by Executive Chamber staff, to write, publish, and promote his Book regarding his handling of the COVID-19 crisis."

It was also found that Cuomo was "guaranteed at least $5.2 million in personal profit" for the book.

Both the nursing home scandal and the book deal are still being investigated by the FBI and the US Eastern District of New York. Besides, the book deal is also under a separate criminal investigation led by Attorney General Letitia James.

The former governor has not commented on the Assembly report. Previously, he consistently denied the accusations of sexual harassment and attacked a probe by James as politically motivated, referring to her ambitions to run for governor in 2022.