Lindsey Boylan elaborated on her time working for Governor Andrew Cuomo in an interview published Thursday, detailing a workplace culture that she called toxic, “particularly for women.”
Speaking to The New Yorker, Boylan recounted a previously unreported moment with Cuomo in 2018 at the governor’s mansion. She said she was approached by Cuomo’s then-new dog, Captain, which began to jump up and down. Boylan said the governor joked that if he were a dog, he would try to “mount” her too.
“I remember being grossed out but also, like, what a dumb third-grade thing to say,” Boylan said, adding “I just shrugged it off.” A Cuomo spokesman denied the comment to The New Yorker and repeated Cuomo’s claim that he had not acted inappropriately around Boylan.
Boylan also spoke about her earlier allegation that Cuomo had given her an unwanted kiss on the lips after a meeting. She described the governor blocking her way out of his Manhattan office and kissing her when she attempted to move forward. “It was in no way platonic … I was mortified,” she said.
Amid widespread claims of Cuomo bullying employees and other politicians, Boylan recalled the governor mocking staffers, including one instance in which he called a male aide “fat.” The aide in question, no longer an employee, declined comment and asked not to be identified.
Boylan even described seeing a dartboard with a photo of Cuomo’s frequent adversary NYC mayor Bill de Blasio during a party in the pool house at the governor’s mansion. “I couldn’t believe how brazen that was,” she said. (On Friday, the mayor accused Cuomo of corruption.)
The New York Times raised another instance of Cuomo’s aggressive behavior toward his political adversaries, publishing audio Friday morning of an exchange between the governor and Bill Lipton of the New York City Working Families Party. Reportedly, the party had been telling its members that Cuomo was still better than a Republican after its preferred candidate, Cynthia Nixon, lost in the primary.
Cuomo brought this up to Lipton, saying in the clip, “If you ever say, ‘Well, he’s better than a Republican’ again, I’m gonna say, ‘You’re better than a child rapist.’ How about that?” When the paper had previously reported the incident, the governor’s team denied it had ever happened.
This type of pressure campaign seems to extend to those making allegations against the governor.
Ana Liss, another former aide who has accused Cuomo of inappropriate conduct, told 13WHAM News on Thursday that she had received a phone call from Richard Azzopardi, a top staffer, asking about Boylan years after Liss had left her role.
“In no uncertain terms, he asked me, ‘Have you been in touch with Lindsey Boylan? Has she contacted you? What’s the nature of your relationship with Lindsey Boylan? If she contacts you, let me know,’” Liss said.
Liss, who was recently interviewed by investigators from the attorney general’s office for its probe into Cuomo’s behavior, said, “I don’t think the average person in New York would like to know that their governor is an absolute monster.”
