Andrew Cuomo described his high aide Melissa DeRosa as a ‘imply lady’, in keeping with the New York lawyer basic’s report, which detailed the ‘poisonous’ work setting created by the governor and his feared advisor.
Identified for her fierce loyalty to her boss, DeRosa, 38, has labored for Cuomo since 2013, and have become a well-recognized face throughout the pandemic as she sat nearly every day at Cuomo’s aspect.
Letitia James’s report into claims made by 11 ladies of sexual harassment painted a darker image of DeRosa’s function, nonetheless.
She labored to discredit a number of of the ladies, in keeping with James’s report, and was accused within the doc of ‘illegal retaliation’.
DeRosa is accused within the 168-page doc as serving to to domesticate a ‘poisonous’ office for younger feminine staffers.
Melissa DeRosa is pictured together with her boss, Andrew Cuomo, after assembly Donald Trump, the president-elect, in January 2017. DeRosa featured closely in Tuesday’s report into allegations of sexual harassment made in opposition to Cuomo by 11 ladies
‘She could be very powerful to cope with,’ a supply advised The New York Post.
‘DeRosa is feared. If you happen to cross her, you are crossing the governor.’
Cuomo himself nicknamed her and others inside the internal circle ‘imply women’, the report stated – though he denied the moniker. She requested him to cease.
DeRosa was beforehand performing chief of workers for the previous lawyer basic, Eric Schneiderman, who in 2018 resigned after a number of ladies accused him of sexual violence.
When the allegations in opposition to Cuomo started to emerge this spring, DeRosa performed a key function in making an attempt to restrict the injury.
The pair had been identified to be shut: footage emerged earlier this yr exhibiting Cuomo, now 63, and DeRosa, 38, having fun with an intimate dinner within the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill in Decrease Manhattan on September 8, 2016.
Cuomo and DeRosa had been pictured having a comfy dinner in September 2016 – shortly after she had married his former spokesman, Matthew Wing. He appeared at one level (pictured) to have his hand resting on her leg
DeRosa has labored for Cuomo since 2013 and is considered one of his closest allies and staunchest defenders
DeRosa is pictured together with her husband, Matthew Wing, who’s a communications chief for Uber
DeRosa had married former Cuomo spokesman Matthew Wing simply 12 days earlier on August 27.
On the time Cuomo was in a long-term relationship with superstar chef Sandra Lee. They had been dwelling collectively in her sprawling house in Mt. Kisco, New York till they ultimately break up in 2019.
Cuomo in 2020 started telling his workers that he was lonely and needed one other girlfriend.
When Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old well being coverage adviser, reported Cuomo’s deeply uncomfortable probing of her sexual historical past and former abuse, DeRosa and different high aides – together with counsel Judith Mogul and former chief of workers Jill Des Rosiers – dragged their ft on performing on her considerations.
Charlotte Bennett, 25, stated she noticed Cuomo as a mentor – however felt that he was aggressively pursuing her sexually
Bennett labored as a public well being coverage advisor. She reported her considerations to his senior workers, however, in keeping with James’s report, the crew dragged their heels on serving to her
The ought to instantly, underneath state legislation, have handed her complaints to the Governor’s Workplace of Worker Relations.
After Bennett got here ahead together with her allegations, the Government Chamber instituted ‘modifications in staffing’ in order that ‘they might keep away from conditions the place the Governor is perhaps seen as being in a compromising state of affairs with any girl.’
However DeRosa and Mogul apparently described the change as ‘actually extra for the Governor’s safety.’
DeRosa was reportedly livid with Cuomo for his habits in direction of Bennett.
The pair had been in a automotive, and DeRosa berated him, saying: ‘I can not consider that this occurred. I can not consider you place your self in a state of affairs the place you’ll be having any model of this dialog.’
She then acquired out when the automotive stopped at a visitors gentle.
Lindsay Boylan was one of many first ladies to publicly accuse Cuomo of harassment
When Lindsey Boylan, a former state financial improvement official, started tweeting allusion to harassment in 2020 – she wouldn’t make a full, public allegation till March of this yr – DeRosa launched Boylan’s personnel report to sure media retailers.
DeRosa admitted the transfer to discredit Boylan when chatting with James’s crew, and stated that she made the choice as a result of Boylan’s tweets in regards to the governor — together with that he was ‘one of many largest abusers of all time’ — grew to become ‘increasingly escalating,’ the report states.
Former aide Josh Vlasto advised the investigators that if DeRosa determined to leak the information, it was ‘protected to say’ the transfer ‘was in line with what the Governor needed or had been mentioned with him and he accepted it.’
A present aide – who has since accused Cuomo of groping her – advised James’s crew she noticed the efforts as a option to discredit Boylan, by calling her ‘loopy’ and accusing her of getting a political agenda, in keeping with the report.
DeRosa additionally performed an element in circulating a proposed op-ed, initially drafted by Cuomo, that contained ‘private {and professional} assaults’ on Boylan, and later sharing it with present and former Government Chamber staff.
‘The draft letter or op-ed attacking Ms. Boylan — notably when mixed with the discharge of the confidential inner information to the press — constitutes retaliation,’ the investigators wrote.
DeRosa is seen with Cuomo in April 2020, and was nearly every day by his aspect throughout the televised press briefings
One other former worker was requested by DeRosa to name a present workers member – often known as ‘Kaitlin’, who additionally accused Cuomo of harassment – and report the decision, asking if she was working with Boylan or if she ‘had her personal allegations in opposition to the Governor or was speaking to reporters.’
And when a state trooper made allegations in opposition to Cuomo, DeRosa, who serves as Cuomo’s Chairwoman of the New York State Council on Ladies & Women, tried to bury them and persuade a newspaper editor to not publish them.
A reporter from The Albany Occasions-Union referred to as requesting touch upon the state trooper’s allegations, and DeRosa yelled on the newspaper’s editor saying, ‘You guys try to scale back her hiring to being about seems. That is what males do.’
DeRosa’s lawyer declined remark.
In an announcement, Azzopardi, Cuomo’s communications director, stated: ‘The report doesn’t single out Melissa and ideas in any other case are factually inaccurate.’
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