The disgraced former governor of New York state, Andrew Cuomo, was accused of sexual assault late on Thursday night in one of the final claims in a last-minute flurry made under the state’s “look-back window”, which closed at midnight.
Late claims were also filed against the music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and against the current mayor of New York, Eric Adams.
Cuomo, who was forced to step down as New York governor in August 2021 after investigators said he subjected aides to unwanted sexual attention, is now being sued by his former executive assistant Brittany Commisso, according to the legal claim.
The former aide alleges Cuomo, 65, subjected her to “humiliating and demeaning tasks, hugs, kisses, sexual touching of the buttocks and forcible touching of the breast” from 2019 to August 2021, and began a campaign of retaliation when she rejected his effort “to engage in sexual acts”.
Commisso has previously accused Cuomo, 65, of groping her inside the governor’s mansion.
In the claim, she alleges that after she reported Cuomo’s alleged conduct, the current governor, Kathy Hochul – then lieutenant governor – “demoted her” to “the demeaning task of answering telephones”.
Cuomo is also being sued by a former state trooper, one of 11 women who have alleged he sexually harassed or mistreating them during his time in office. He has denied the allegations.
Rita Glavin, a lawyer for the former governor, told the New York Post on Friday that Commisso’s claims were “provably false” and described them as a “transparent attempt at a cash grab”.
The Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily expanded the statute of limitations, grabbed headlines immediately when the writer E Jean Carroll restated a rape and defamation claim against Donald Trump mere minutes after the look-back window opened a year ago. The accusations against Foxx, Combs, Adams and Cuomo also came as the law was expiring. Other accusations were filed against photographer Terry Richardson, music producer Jimmy Iovine, comedian Bill Cosby and the Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose.
