The New York College Democratic and Republican clubs called for SUNY Chancellor James Malatras to resign for smearing Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to publicly accuse ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo of harassment.
Malatras’ vicious comments were revealed on Monday when Attorney General Letitia James released a trove of documents related to her investigation of the disgraced governor.
The bombshell evidence prompted CNN to suspend anchor Chris Cuomo for his role in combatting harassment complaints against his brother, Andrew.
Texts and emails showed Chris Cuomo tapping his journalistic sources and passing dirt along to his brother’s team to sully accusers.
Andrew Cuomo resigned in August under the threat of impeachment after James’ devastating investigative report concluded that the three-term Democrat mistreated as many as 11 women and harassed or committed misconduct against several staffers — including a state trooper assigned to his security detail. He denied wrongdoing despite stepping down.
The newly released documents include email chains from May of 2019 where Malatras, a longtime Cuomo aide and advisor before being appointed SUNY chancellor at Cuomo’s behest, trashes Boylan in a dispute over workplace conditions in the governor’s office a year-and-a-half before she leveled her sexual harassment claims.
“Malatras to Boylan: Go f**k yourself,” Malatras texted the Cuomo aides.
“Let’s release some of her cray emails!” Malatras wrote to a staffer in Cuomo’s inner circle after Boylan slammed the governor’s office as a toxic workplace. Cray is slang for crazy.
Malatras also said he wanted to “drive her nuts” — referring to Boylan.
Another staffer, Cuomo officer director, Stephanie Benton, wrote in a text thread, “When do we release the nuclear crazy file, I’m ready to testify.”
A year later, the Cuomo camp did release portions of Boylan’s personnel file to try to undercut her harassment claims.
The Post first reported on the twitter spat between Malatras and Boylan back in March. But Malatras displays more nastiness in the internal chats about Boylan.
The New York College Democrats and Republican clubs said Malatras’ comments and behavior were beyond the pale — and he must go.
Malatras’ barbs about Boylan were “extremely inappropriate” and “illustrate the chancellor’s pattern of toxic, unprofessional and inexcusable behavior,” said Savannah Chadwick, president of the College Democrats of New York.
“We find the chancellor unfit to lead our great SUNY system, which must uphold itself as an inclusive space for all students and faculty,” said Chadwick.
“College Democrats of New York call on the SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras to resign from his position, and strongly encourage Governor Hochul and the SUNY Board of Trustees to remove Malatras and to conduct a thorough nationwide search for a chancellor should he fail to cooperate.”
Augustus LeRoux, president of the New York Federation of College of Republicans, agreed.
“The malicious words written by Malatras rum counterproductive to the mission of higher education institutions,” LeRoux said.
“In addition to his resignation, Chancellor Malatras must issue a formal apology for his works. In attacking Lindsey Boylan, the chancellor also issued an indirect attack on all victims
“Students within the SUNY system deserve morally and ethically sound administrators.”
Malatras has been embroiled in other Cuomo controversies — including editing the controversial state Health Department report in July of 2020 for the governor, which concluded that a Cuomo administration policy of forcing nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals did not cause more resident deaths.
The report also low-balled the total number of nursing home deaths during the pandemic, though Malatras said he did not change the higher tally included in an earlier draft — Cuomo and his top officials did while he was negotiating his $5.1 million “leadership” book on the coronavirus.
As it happens, Malatras also edited Cuomo’s COVID-19 memoir and served on the governor’s COVID-19 response team.
Malatras had no immediate comment Wednesday night.
But he issued a semi-mea culpa on Tuesday, saying he chose his words poorly in his dispute with Boylan. At the time, he was the head of SUNY’s Rockefeller Institute.
“The truth is I’m not proud of the language that I used,” Malatras told reporters after testifying at an Assembly Higher Education Committee meeting.
“People have disagreements in high stress jobs. I should have used different language. It’s a long time ago. I’ve got to focus on SUNY.”
But Malatras did not back away from his substantive disagreement with Boylan on workplace issues at the time.
“I stand by the things I say. You could always say things a little better. …I could have done it in a more collaborative manner. Lessons learned,” he said.
Malatras defended his record of public service — including being assigned to Cuomo’s team overseeing the response to the coronavirus pandemic — and has no intention of stepping down as chancellor of the 64-campus system.
“There is a lot of work to be done. I love the system. SUNY is the best system in the United States of America,” said Malatras, a SUNY at Albany graduate.