Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to publicly accuse Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, slammed the governor as a “disgusting monster” and called for his resignation after two more women shared their own allegations against the lawmaker, bringing the total to five.
Writing late Saturday on Twitter, Boylan also voiced support for the fourth and fifth accusers, fellow former Cuomo staffers Ana Liss and Karen Hinton.
“Resign you disgusting monster, @NYGovCuomo,” tweeted Boylan in the wake of the two latest allegations.
Liss, 35, told the Wall Street Journal in a piece published Saturday that Cuomo once kissed her hand, asked if she had a boyfriend and made other remarks that left her feeling like “just a skirt.”
And Hinton told the Washington Post that in 2000, Cuomo, then the head of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, grabbed her in a “very long, too long, too tight, too intimate” embrace inside his dimly lit hotel room in Los Angeles.
“I am very proud of Ana Liss. She is brave and she speaks for me too,” tweeted Boylan. “It’s extremely destructive that our boss, the governor of New York, treated us this way.”
The message was retweeted by hundreds including fellow accuser and ex-Cuomo staffer Charlotte Bennett, 25, who has accused the governor of making a series of untoward remarks that left her convinced he was in pursuit of a sexual relationship.
Added Boylan of the other new accusation, “Thank you Karen Hinton for courageously sharing your story of how our boss, one of the most powerful men in the country, used his power to abuse you. I am sending you love. I am with you. We are with you.”
The fifth accuser — and the only one not to work for Cuomo at any point — is Anna Ruch, 33, who has alleged that Cuomo grabbed her and kissed her on the cheek as she tried to pull away at a wedding they both attended in 2019.
A Cuomo spokesman denied that the run-in alleged by Hinton occurred, while claiming that she had ulterior motives for accusing him of sexual harassment.
“This did not happen,” Peter Ajemian said in a statement to the Washington Post. “Karen Hinton is a known antagonist of the Governor’s who is attempting to take advantage of this moment to score cheap points with made up allegations from 21 years ago.”
As for the other new accusation, another Cuomo spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, did not specifically deny Liss’ account, but said that it was not unusual to affectionately kiss people.
“Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures. At the public open-house mansion reception, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of pictures,” Azzopardi told the Journal. “That’s what people in politics do.”
Cuomo offered a similar explanation during a press briefing held last week, his first since the scandal broke.
The governor also offered a conditional apology “if [his accusers] were offended” by his remarks, and flatly denied touching anyone inappropriately.
He vowed not to resign, as a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers and political groups have demanded.
