(John Ransom, Headline USA) In a development that’s been foreshadowed from the beginning, a New York DA responsible for prosecuting former Democrat governor Andrew Cuomo for criminal sexual harassment has dropped the case, saying that he doesn’t have enough evidence to prosecute.
“To be clear, this decision is based solely upon an assessment of the law and whether the People can establish a legally sufficient case under controlling precedent,” Oswego DA Gregory Oakes told the New York Post.
“In no way should this decision be interpreted as casting doubt upon the character or credibility of Ms. Limmiatis, or how harmful the acts she experienced were,” he said.
I was discussing this w/ another public defender. This law is already good enough to prosecute 1,000s of people with far less evidence. Just not good enough to prosecute Cuomo. I don’t disagree we can make laws stronger but @OswegoCountyNY needs to get rid of DA Gregory Oakes!!! https://t.co/iDbO3jwGFC
— Elias Abdou Farah (@EliasAFarah) February 1, 2022
Limmiatis, 55, claimed that Cuomo grabbed her breasts at an event in 2017 and she came forward after Cuomo denied ever touching any woman inappropriately.
“She was one of 11 women who came forward to allege the former governor sexually harassed them,” said the Daily Mail.
DA Oakes said that the decision not to prosecute isn’t an exoneration for Cuomo.
Oakes statement is similar to the covering press release that then-FBI James Comey used in deciding not to prosecute Hillary Clinton when the FBI investigated the use of her own private email server for classified documents after signing documents pledging not to do so.
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information,” said Comey at the time, “there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
Politico noted that similar cases against Cuomo in Albany, Westchester, Nassau County and Manhattan were pursued by DAs there but ended with similar statements that said that they couldn’t find evidence to convict Cuomo, but the lack of evidence wasn’t an exoneration.
“Mr. Cuomo’s relentless attacks on these brave women will not mask the truth — he is a serial sexual harasser,” said New York Attorney General Tish James, according to Politico.
Her comments were in response to charges from Cuomo who said the cases were just a “political hit job to further the Attorney General’s own ambitions,” reported Politico.
James, 63, spearheaded the state investigation of Cuomo that eventually caused the governor to resign from office.
