Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., on Monday called for an “independent investigation” into allegations that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who supported the #MeToo movement, sexually abused and harassed a female employee.
“I am publicly calling for an independent investigation into the serious allegations of pervasive workplace sexual harassment and verbal abuse by Governor Andrew Cuomo,” she said, according to a press release.
“The people of New York deserve a Governor who lives up to his own public statements on sexual harassment,” she added.
Lindsey Boylan, one of Cuomo’s former aides, said in a series of tweets on Dec. 13 that he “sexually harassed [her] for years.”
Boylan also said she knows that she is “not the only woman” who Cuomo has harassed.
In her statement, Stefanik referenced multiple past comments that Cuomo made about the need to believe women who accuse men of sexual abuse, harassment, and assault.
Cuomo has said that he believes sexual harassment victims deserve nothing “less than a full, complete and unbiased investigation.”
“News of the alleged improprieties are grossly disturbing and must be fully investigated,” he said.
Cuomo praised the publicization of #MeToo accusations.
“Change comes when people demand change, and change comes when the problem is revealed and exposed,” he said.
“That is always Step 1, and what you’re seeing now is women standing up all across the country and saying this nation has a chronic, disturbing, disgusting behavior of sexual harassment against women, and its gone on for a long, long time and it has to stop,” he said.
Boylan was Cuomo’s deputy secretary for economic development and a special adviser from March 2015 to October 2018.
During that period, Boylan said “many saw” the harassment but merely “watched” without defending her.
Despite Cuomo’s past statements, he has not called for an independent investigation, instead saying that Boylan’s allegations are “just not true,” News10 reported.
“I heard about the tweet and what it said about comments that I had made. And it’s not true,” he said. “I fought for and I believe a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion and express issues and concerns that she has.”
