Former Aide of Andrew Cuomo Accuses Governor of Sexual Harassment: “Let’s Play Strip Poker”

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Lindsey Boylan, (left) the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo. Photo Twitter. Governor Andrew Cuomo (right) Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com, licensed.
Lindsey Boylan, (left) the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo. Photo Twitter. Governor Andrew Cuomo (right) Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com, licensed.

NEW YORK, NY – According to reports, a former aide of Andrew Cuomo has come forward with an essay detailing her previous accusations of sexual harassment against the New York Governor, which reportedly included unwanted touching and kissing and an invitation to play a game of “strip poker.”

Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo, made the accusations against the Governor in an essay she published on Medium.com this morning, detailing several incidents of purported harassment, behavior that Boylan said many of his female staffers had “normalized.”

“It was all so normalized — particularly by Melissa DeRosa and other top women around him — that only now do I realize how insidious his abuse was,” she said.

Among that claims made by Boylan in her essay include a 2018 incident where Cuomo allegedly stepped into her path and kissed her on the lips as she was attempting to leave his office.

“We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue,” she said. “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.”

She also wrote of an incident that allegedly took place on a jet, where she claimed that Cuomo got physically close to her and said, “Let’s play strip poker.”

“I should have been shocked by the Governor’s crude comment, but I wasn’t,” she said. “We were flying home from an October 2017 event in Western New York on his taxpayer-funded jet. He was seated facing me, so close our knees almost touched. His press aide was to my right and a state trooper behind us.”

Boylan said that she eventually resigned from her position on September 26, 2018, after she claimed that she “came to work nauseous every day.”

“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,” she said in her essay.

Boylan had previously made accusations against Cuomo in December 2020 – at the time the Governor denied them, claiming “It’s just not true” – but this new essay represents the first time she has backed up her claims with specific details.

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