ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo's outside counsel Rita Glavin held a virtual briefing Friday afternoon requesting the New York State Attorney General's office to correct and supplement its report into allegations of sexual harassment against the governor.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced the findings of the independent investigation back on August 3. After nearly five months, independent investigators appointed by the Attorney General concluded that Governor Cuomo did sexually harass multiple women.
The 168-page general report details that Cuomo sexually harassed current and former state employees "by engaging in unwanted groping, kissing, and hugging, and making inappropriate comments."
Glavin addressed New Yorkers on August 10 saying the report from the Attorney General's office contained errors and omitted key evidence. And on Friday, August 20, Glavin held another virtual briefing echoing her previous statements.
In the virtual briefing, Glavin said she would be submitting a letter to the Attorney General in the next week requesting corrections to the August 3 report. Glavin says it's important for the Attorney General to include omissions and make corrections to the document since government entities plan on utilizing the findings in the report.
"I believe that to the extent that the New York State Assembly or any other government entity will be relying on that August 3 report to make decisions — to make findings," Glavin said. "It is incumbent upon the chief legal officer of our state to make corrections, include material omissions and supplement the record with information that bears directly on a number of the findings that were included in that report."
It was announced earlier this week that the Assembly Judiciary Committee will "continue to review the evidence" against the governor and plans on issuing its own report. This came only a few days after the New York State Assembly said it was suspending its impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Glavin went on to say that despite her previous requests to the Assembly Judiciary Committee and to the Attorney General's office, she still has not been given access to the evidence obtained from the report.
"There are 79,000 documents that were gathered, there are 179 interviews conducted including 41 transcribed and 138 for which I assume there are memos," Glavin said. "I have not been given access to any of that material despite having made requests to the Assembly Judiciary Committee and to the Attorney General. I will renew those requests as I attempt to put forward a full submission on the governor's behalf."
In the remainder of the briefing Glavin outlined specific instances that she says must be corrected and supplemented in the report.
The first was regarding the report about Virginia Limmiatis — an energy company employee. The report found that at a conservation event at Salmon River on May 24, 2017, Limmiatis had joined a rope line to meet the governor. According to the report, Cuomo walked up close to Limmiatis and "pressed his first two fingers of his right hand on each letter of the energy company's name printed across the chest of Ms. Limmiatis' shirt," adding that the governor leaned in so his cheek touched hers.
The report found that Limmiatis was shocked and appalled during the interaction; however, Glavin says the report did not include any photos from the event. Glavin says hundreds of photos were taken of the event — adding that they contradict and undermine the findings. She then proceeded to go through several photos pointing out inconsistencies between the report and the photos that were not included.
Glavin says she will be asking for all of the photos from the event to be included in the Attorney General's report for context.
A lengthy statement was later released Friday afternoon by Limmiatis' attorney saying in part:
"Ms. Limmiatis did not just testify under oath – she also had multiple witnesses, including people at the event itself whom she did not know well, and others who were close to her. They likewise provided statements under oath and confirmed to the AG that she had confided in them, telling them moments afterwards, and in the days afterwards, that Cuomo had touched her breasts and that it was profoundly upsetting and humiliating – and that he made up a story about it to cover himself.
"Cuomo dismisses her allegations as some kind of misinterpretation. His attorney falsely implies that they have photos depicting the entire interaction with Ms. Limmiatis. But the photos do not depict the interaction of inappropriate touching that Ms. Limmiatis testified to."
Glavin went through four other examples of corrections, including state entity employee number one, Charlotte Bennett, Brittany Commisso and Lindsey Boylan.
In terms of state entity employee number one, Glavin is once again requesting that all photos from the event are included in the report for context. Glavin is also requesting that the Attorney General's office retracts the finding that the governor grabbed the butt of state entity employee number one. Glavin says this is not true, further citing an email from the employee saying the governor tapped her butt two times.
In terms of Bennett, Glavin says when the report came out she was sent new information that "related to her [Charlotte Bennett] credibility." Glavin would not publicly release the information, but says it will be provided to the Attorney General and the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
Glavin then outlined the findings regarding Commisso, saying "contemporaneous state records and emails from November 16 do not in any way corroborate what Ms. Commisso first told the Times Union happened or what the report concluded." Glavin is requesting that November 16 records, along with Commisso's interview with the Times Union, and a newly published article by the Times Union should all be included in the report for context.
Glavin also discussed the report about Boylan, saying the report needed to include several points. Glavin says the report must include a discussion of the communications between Attorney General's Office and Boylan's top political consultant and why Boylan's communications consultant resigned. Glavin is also asking for the Attorney General to include the circumstances as to why Boylan left her state employment, specific testimony of witnesses that allegedly did not find Boylan's allegations to be credible, and the "message that Ms. Boylan sent to Howard Zemsky to coerce him to change his story."
In addition, Glavin argues that the report must include information that is considered favorable to the governor.
Later in the day Friday, the Attorney General's office released the following statement:
“After multiple women made accusations that Governor Cuomo sexually harassed them, the governor, himself, requested that Attorney General James oversee an independent investigation. That investigation was exhaustive, thorough, and without outside influence, period.
“Given the multiple, ongoing criminal investigations into the governor’s conduct, it would not be appropriate to respond further to these baseless attacks. The 168-page report and additional 486 pages of exhibits clearly corroborate the experiences of the complainants, yet the governor and his aides continue to undermine those who seek to expose this dangerous conduct.
“We cannot allow survivors of sexual harassment to be further traumatized by these continued attacks, lies, and conspiracy theories.”