A second woman has accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, according to a new report.
Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old former aide to Cuomo, told The New York Times that the governor asked her inappropriate personal questions, told her he was open to relationships with women in their 20s, and left her feeling that he “wanted to sleep with me.”
Bennett, who worked as an executive assistant and health-policy adviser, told the Times the interactions took place in the spring, as the coronavirus pandemic flared.
Cuomo, 63, never made any physical advances, she said.
Still, she described a June meeting in Cuomo’s Albany office, during which he griped about being lonely during the pandemic and whined he “can’t even hug anyone.”
Cuomo, 63, then pressed her: “Who did I last hug,” she said.
She tried to dodge the question by saying she missed hugging her parents. “And he was, like, ‘No, I mean like really hugged somebody,’” she said.
“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Bennett told the Times.
“And [I] was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.”
Bennett, who grew up in Westchester County, is around the same age as Cuomo’s oldest daughters. She said she told the governor how she had once played soccer against one of his girls.
When she told Cuomo in May of her experience as a sexual-assault survivor, he seemed fixated by the revelation, she said.
She told a friend via text message: “The way he was repeating, ‘You were raped and abused and attacked and assaulted and betrayed,’ over and over again while looking me directly in the eyes was something out of a horror movie,” according to the Times.
“It was like he was testing me.”
Cuomo told her he was lonely since his relationship celebrity chef Sandra Lee, his girlfriend of 14 years, ended in 2019.
He stressed to her that Lee was “out of the picture,” and referred to “wanting a girlfriend, preferably in the Albany area.”
“Age doesn’t matter,” he told her, as he asked about her feelings about age differences in relationships — a conversation she told a friend about at the time, in a text reviewed by the Times.
He was “fine with anyone above the age of 22,” she said he told her.
Once, when she told him she was mulling getting a tattoo, he suggested she get it on her buttocks, so people wouldn’t see it when she wore a dress, she told the Times.
She reported Cuomo’s conduct to his chief of staff and was transferred to another job with an office at the other side of the Capitol, Bennett said. She left the administration in November.
The revelations come after another former staffer, Lindsey Boylan, accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, including a claim that he planted an unwanted kiss on her in his office.
Boylan tweeted at the governor Saturday evening as word broke of Bennett’s accusations.
“You are not going to derail or destroy any more lives @NYGovCuomo,” she wrote.
Cuomo defended himself in a statement released Saturday night.
“Ms. Bennett was a hardworking and valued member of our team during COVID. She has every right to speak out,” the governor said in the first statement.
“When she came to me and opened up about being a sexual assault survivor and how it shaped her and her ongoing efforts to create an organization that empowered her voice to help other survivors, I tried to be supportive and helpful.
“Ms. Bennett’s initial impression was right: I was trying to be a mentor to her. I never made advances toward Ms. Bennett nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate. The last thing I would ever have wanted was to make her feel any of the things that are being reported,” he said.
Beth Garvey, special counsel and senior adviser to Cuomo said in a statement that Cuomo “has requested an independent review and all staff will cooperate in that endeavor. Former Federal Judge Barbara Jones will lead the review.”
She later added that there would be “no limits on the scope of Judge Jones’ review.”
Garvey said Bennett’s concerns had been brought to a special counsel and that Bennett was “thoroughly debriefed on the facts which did not include a claim of physical contact or inappropriate sexual conduct. She was consulted regarding the resolution, and expressed satisfaction and appreciation for the way in which it was handled.”
“The determination reached based on the information Ms Bennett provided was that no further action was required which was consistent with Ms Bennett’s wishes,” Garvey said.
Reaction to the news from fellow pols was immediate.
“As I previously stated, all allegations of harassment must be taken seriously. A truly independent investigation is warranted,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a fellow Dem.
Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: “The continued allegations are deeply disturbing and concerning. The behavior described has no place in the workplace. A truly independent investigation must begin immediately. ”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Glens Falls), who has called for Cuomo to resign over the Boylan allegations, said Saturday evening that “Gov. Cuomo is a criminal sexual predator and he must immediately resign.”
“I was one of the first and one of the only elected officials to call on the governor to resign on Dec 14th. Today, it’s time for other New York State leaders to grow a spine,” she said.
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