Andrew Cuomo accuser Lyndsey Boylan makes fresh claims about the governor

Andrew Cuomo accuser Lyndsey Boylan has leveled fresh allegations at the New York governor, claiming he said he would ‘mount her’ during one 2018 incident.  

Boylan, a former Cuomo aide, was the first woman to accuse the Democrat of sexual harassment on Twitter in December. She revealed more about her allegations and her experience with the governor in a Medium post in late February. 

Now she has spoken with The New Yorker in more detail about her claims, sharing the alleged 2018 incident where she says the governor’s pet dog Captain jumped up near her.

Boylan says Cuomo then told her if he were a dog he would ‘mount’ her too. She added: ‘I remember being grossed out but also, like, what a dumb third-grade thing to say.’

She also says the Democrat had a Bill de Blasio dartboard at his governor’s mansion and describes an aide crying after Cuomo allegedly mocked her new haircut. Another was called fat by the governor, she says.  

It’s since been revealed that in the wake of Boylan’s December allegations a team of Cuomo’s top aides, including Melissa DeRosa, Rich Azzopardi and Steven M. Cohen, moved to leak her personal files, which included allegations of bullying. 

Boylan has called that move ‘victim-blaming bulls***’. 

Cuomo is facing allegations that he sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately toward six women, including several former staffers in his administration. 

The accusations range from groping under a woman’s shirt and planting unwanted kisses to asking unwelcome personal questions about sex and dating.

The Democratic governor has said he ‘never touched anyone inappropriately’ and ‘never made any inappropriate advances’ and that ‘no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable.’ He has called some allegations false.

A spokesperson said: ‘As we said before, Ms. Boylan’s claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false.’ 

Boylan’s alleged harassment took place when she was as an economic adviser for the Cuomo administration between 2015 and 2018.

She has previously claimed that Cuomo tried to kiss her on the lips in his office and that during a 2017 flight, suggested they play strip poker. 

It was last week alleged Melissa DeRosa coordinated an effort to dig dirt on Boylan after she made reports of sexual harassment against him in December. 

The governor’s office called at least six former employees to find out if they had contact with Boylan, and tried to find out information to discredit her in a manner the ex-staffers described as intimidating, the Wall Street Journal said. 

DeRosa is also the aide embroiled in the nursing home COVID deaths scandal. 

Boylan told the New Yorker of that alleged smear campaign that it was ‘victim-blaming bulls***’, adding: ‘I don’t want to take anything away from a woman that may have had a negative interaction with me…There’s no real H.R. function that would be independent of the Governor and his closest aides.’ 

She goes on to describe more of the alleged inappropriate behavior she says she experienced working for Cuomo and the ‘toxic’ environment he created. 

Boylan said: ‘He would find a way to, like, touch me in passing. He frequently stared at my legs.’ 

Alleging that Cuomo mocked Stephanie Benton, the director of the Governor’s offices, over her new haircut, Boylan said: ‘I remember, Stephanie had a haircut that he kept making fun of her for all day in front of other people. And she was crying.’

Benton – who still works for the state government – denies this incident, adding: ‘If I felt otherwise, I would speak for myself.’ 

After her political hero, Hillary Clinton, refused to call for Cuomo to resign, Boylan said: ‘There’s no way you don’t know who this man is if you’ve worked with, or around, him for decades.’

On Tuesday it was revealed Cuomo’s office has opened its own inquiry into allegations by an aide that he groped her last year. 

The woman’s attorney said the inquiry by Cuomo’s team, at the same time as AG Letitia James’s prosecutors investigate the same allegations, was deeply troubling.

The unnamed female aide, who is said to be much younger than Cuomo and is still employed by the state, claims the 63-year-old governor summoned her to his residence in the Executive Mansion, where he put his hand under her shirt and fondled her. 

She said she was summoned by the governor who told her he needed help with his cellphone.

Her accusations were first reported by The Albany Times Union on March 9.  

On March 11 Cuomo referred himself to the police, in an incident that may have ‘risen to the level of a crime’, officials confirmed.

A spokesperson for the department, Steve Smith, said that police had not received a formal complaint from the aide, but they have reached out to a representative for her.

This does not mean police have opened a criminal investigation, rather that the department has offered its services to the woman, ‘as we would any other report or incident’, Smith said.  

Cuomo has been facing calls to resign amid the backlash from the allegations, added to the criticism of his handling of the data on deaths of nursing home residents from COVID-19 earlier in the pandemic.  

An impeachment investigation was launched by state Democrats to look into both scandals. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James is also overseeing an investigation into the complaints by the accusers and how they were handled by Cuomo’s administration. 

His other accusers include 25-year-old Charlotte Bennett who claims he asked about her sex life and whether she had relationships with older men while she was working as his aide last year. 

The fourth unnamed aide claims the governor touched her inappropriately during an encounter at the Executive Mansion last year. 

Cuomo has apologized if he made the women feel uncomfortable but denies touching anyone inappropriately.