New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has reportedly retained legal counsel amid news he may be facing twin probes over his administration’s handling of elderly coronavirus patients and several allegations of sexual harassment.
In an exclusive report Monday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal notes that Cuomo hired one of New York’s top white collar criminal defense attorneys, Elkan Abramowitz.
“Abramowitz, a one-time federal prosecutor, confirmed on Monday that he is representing the Executive Chamber—which comprises the governor and his closest aides—in Justice Department inquiries about the state’s nursing homes,” the WSJ reported.
“This is the second time Mr. Cuomo has turned to Mr. Abramowitz to represent him in a sensitive manner,” the outlet noted. “In 2014, the governor hired Mr. Abramowitz as his lawyer in a federal probe over whether Mr. Cuomo acted improperly in steering the work of an anticorruption commission that was shut down as part of a state budget deal that year.”
Both women who have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment have reportedly retained counsel.
Charlotte Bennett, who alleged, Saturday that the governor engaged in “predatory behavior,” has hired attorney Debra Katz, the lawyer who represented Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the former classmate who accused now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when the pair were teenagers in suburban Washington, D.C.
“Ms. Bennett will cooperate fully with the Attorney General’s investigation,” Katz said in a statement Monday.
“We are confident that no disinterested investigator who reviews this evidence would adopt the Governor’s self-serving characterization of his behavior as mentorship or, at worst, unwanted flirtation,” Katz added, referring Cuomo’s statement made Sunday, acknowledging his actions but claiming Bennett misunderstood his sense of humor. “He was not acting as a mentor and his remarks were not misunderstood by Ms. Bennett. He was abusing his power over her for sex. This is textbook sexual harassment.”
On Monday, the New York Attorney General, Leticia James, also received a “formal referral granting her request to launch an independent investigation into allegations of sexual harassment” from the governor’s office, per Law & Crime.
The referral clears the way for an investigation to begin.
Last week, the Albany Times-Union reported that the FBI and the United States Attorney in Brooklyn had launched a probe into allegations that the Cuomo administration “obstructed justice.”
The probe is likely connected to reports that a Cuomo administration senior aide told state Democrats, in February, that the governor’s office deliberately underreported COVID-19 nursing home deaths connected to a Cuomo order that sent recovering coronavirus patients into nursing and other adult care facilities, in order to avoid a federal investigation.
New York Democrats — and even some prominent federal legislators — have called for Cuomo to face impeachment proceedings related to the nursing home order. On Sunday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joined President Joe Biden in calling for an additional and independent investigation into the sexual harassment claims.
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