‘HE WENT FOR IT’

Cuomo Aide Behind Groping Allegation Speaks Out for First Time

The woman who made the most serious allegation against Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given a firsthand account for the first time.

A woman who previously confided in friends about Gov. Andrew Cuomo allegedly groping her spoke up for the first time in an interview with the Times Union on Wednesday. The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity but was described as an aide to Cuomo, said that she was at the governor’s mansion in his office, when he came out from behind his desk and allegedly groped her. “And that wasn’t just a hug,” she was quoted saying. “He went for it and I kind of like was, ‘Oh, the door is right there.’ ... I was mortified that a woman who works here is going to come in and see. ... I was terrified of that happening, because that’s not who I am and that’s not what I’m here for.” From there, she said, things only got worse.

“I said to him, I said, ‘You’re going to get us in trouble,’” she recalled. “I didn’t know what else to say. … It was pretty much like ‘What are you doing?’ That’s when he slammed the door (shut). He said, ‘I don’t care.’” She alleged that the governor then grabbed her breast over her bra. “I remember going downstairs and escorting myself out and going to my car and sitting there for a second and going, ‘OK, I have to now go back into the Capitol, go back to my desk and do my job and pretend that, like, that didn’t just happen,’” she told the Times Union. She went on to describe a pattern of inappropriate behavior that she said has lasted about two years, with Cuomo allegedly making inappropriate comments and insisting on increasingly tight hugs.

“He looked at me one time and said, ‘Oh, if you were single, the things that I would do to you,’” she said. The governor has been accused of sexual harassment and misconduct by at least 7 people, though the unnamed aide's groping allegation is so far the most serious. Cuomo has denied the allegations made against him, which are currently the focus of an investigation by the state's attorney general and an impeachment inquiry by state lawmakers.