Most mainstream media outlets are avoiding this scandal like the plague. Probably because New York Governor Cuomo is under fire right now for the alleged fatal nursing home catastrophe cover-up. It is, after all, their sworn duty to protect corrupt Democrats at all cost. Lindsey Boylan, former deputy secretary for economic development and special advisor to Cuomo originally alerted everyone that something had happened to her while under Cuomo’s employment but she did not release details until now.
Boylan reported in an easy she wrote on the Medium, Wednesday, in grotesque detail about how Cuomo used his powerful position to frighten her. All the while, she dealt with inappropriate touching, kissing, and filthy comments from the Democrats.
“Today I am telling my story,” Boylan said in a tweet sharing the post. “I never planned to share the details of my experience working in the Cuomo administration, but I am doing so now in the hopes that it may make it easier for others to speak their own truth.”
Today I am telling my story. I never planned to share the details of my experience working in the Cuomo administration, but I am doing so now in hopes that it may make it easier for others to speak their own truth. https://t.co/n1Lcc6Ac66
— Lindsey Boylan (@LindseyBoylan) February 24, 2021
“Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected. His inappropriate behavior toward women was an affirmation that he liked you, that you must be doing something right. He used intimidation to silence his critics. And if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences,” Boylan wrote in her explosive post.
Boylan first went public with accusations that Gov. Cuomo sexually harassed her last December, but declined to give further details at the time. In her Medium post, she explained that the decision to share “a small part of the truth I had hidden for so long in shame” was spontaneous, made after another unnamed former Cuomo staffer shared her story of the governor’s workplace harassment on Dec. 12.
Boylan explained that she was afraid of the notorious bully and knew that he would ruin her career if she spoke up. She had already faced a backlash from his staffers after she began to stick up for herself while employed by Cuomo.
“Seeing his name floated as a potential candidate for U.S. Attorney General — the highest law enforcement official in the land — set me off,” Boylan wrote.
“In a few tweets, I told the world what a few close friends, family members, and my therapist had known for years: Andrew Cuomo abused his power as Governor to sexually harass me, just as he had done with so many other women.”
In her post, Boylan recounts that after she joined the state government in 2015 as vice president at Empire State Development, she was promoted to chief of staff at the state economic development agency. After her promotion, she says that a friend “who served as an executive with an influential civic engagement organization” warned her to “be careful around the governor.”
Her boss was in on it? Boylan detailed how her own boss first told her that Cuomo had a ‘crush’ on her- a married woman.
“I had complained to friends that the Governor would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms, and legs,” Boylan wrote.
Boylan said she did not become afraid of Cuomo until she realized his staff was keeping tabs on her for him. This was made clear when one of them acted as a contact for Cuomo to arrange for Boylan to be trapped alone with him in his office. Boylan said she had a sinking feeling and called her husband from the elevator to tell him how afraid she was.
“As he showed me around, I tried to maintain my distance. He paused at one point and smirked as he showed off a cigar box. He told me that President Clinton had given it to him while he served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The two-decade-old reference to President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was not lost on me,” Boylan wrote.
Following this, she claims Cuomo’s “inappropriate gestures became more frequent.” He would send roses to female staffers on Valentine’s Day and “arranged to have one delivered to me, the only one on my floor.” He also sent her a signed photograph that “appeared in my closed-door office while I was out.”
“These were not-so-subtle reminders of the Governor exploiting the power dynamic with the women around him,” Boylan wrote.
She also said his “pervasive harassment” extended to other women, including making “unflattering comments” about their weight, ridiculing their romantic relationships and significant others, and claiming that the reasons men get women are “money and power.”
“I tried to excuse his behavior. I told myself ‘it’s only words.’ But that changed after a one-on-one briefing with the Governor to update him on economic and infrastructure projects. We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue. As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking,” Boylan alleges.
“I was reprimanded and told to get in line by his top aides, but I could no longer ignore it,” she wrote. She resigned from the Cuomo administration on Sep. 26, 2018.
“There is a part of me that will never forgive myself for being a victim for so long, for trying to ignore behavior that I knew was wrong. The Governor exploited my weaknesses, my desire to do good work, and to be respected. I was made to believe this was the world I needed to survive in,” Boylan wrote.
Boylan said that despite the fear of being crushed under Cuomo’s powerful grip over the deep blue state, she’s glad she spoke up. She has received an outpouring of support and said that two other victims have come forward.
“Telling my truth isn’t about seeking revenge. I was proud to work in the Cuomo Administration. For so long I had looked up to the Governor. But his abusive behavior needs to stop.”
Cuomo’s office has denied all of Boylan’s accusations but it doesn’t look good for the Governor. Though, if the media continues to ignore her story, this could be swept under the rug with all the other accusations against Democrats.