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The day Andrew Cuomo kicked off his campaign for mayor of New York City, his lawyer Rita Glavin was asked about Cuomo’s efforts to obtain the gynecological records of one of the women who came forward to share stories of the former New York governor’s sexual harassment before he resigned from office in 2021. The records, Glavin answered, were “absolutely pertinent, relevant, and if we get released from the confidentiality order, we can give you more details.”
The woman in question had dropped her legal effort months earlier, explaining that she was giving it up in the hope that Cuomo “can no longer use this lawsuit to harass me and my family.” Shortly after she dropped her suit, Cuomo threatened to sue her for defamation. (The woman did not respond to a request for comment, and her lawyer declined to share one.)
She is one of many women who are still paying, quite literally, for their decisions to speak out about the toxic workplace Cuomo fostered as governor. An investigation by New York State Attorney General Letitia James found that Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women while he was governor; the U.S. Department of Justice, meanwhile, concluded Cuomo sexually harassed 13. (Representatives for Cuomo have dismissed both investigations, with spokesman Rich Azzopardi calling the AG’s investigation “a purely political document,” and the DOJ’s report a “glorified press release” that “rubber-stamped the AG’s biased and inaccurate report.” Cuomo himself has apologized for having “acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable,” while strenuously denying the accusations against him. He has never been criminally prosecuted in connection with any of the complaints.)
Cuomo’s demand for the gynecological records, victims advocates say, is part of a pattern for the former governor and his lawyers, who they accuse of using the legal system to wage an exorbitantly expensive revenge campaign against the women who spoke out about his harassment. And the costs of that campaign —billed to New York taxpayers —continue to accrue as Cuomo pursues public office once again.
According to the state comptroller’s office, in the four years since Cuomo resigned as governor, New York taxpayers have paid $60 million in legal expenses related to Cuomo’s conduct in office, including efforts to defend the former governor in lawsuits concerning his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, his book deal, and the sexual harassment accusations. The vast majority of that total — $46.9 million —is related to the investigation and litigation of the harassment claims. (That figure includes costs associated with the attorney general’s investigation as well as three separate lawsuits: Trooper 1 v Cuomo et al., Bennett v Cuomo et al., and Commisso v Cuomo et al.)
Because Cuomo was governor at the time of the sexual harassment complaints, both his legal defense and the defense of his deputies’ is covered by New York state. Typically, a state’s attorney general would provide that defense, but because New York’s attorney general led the investigation into Cuomo’s alleged harassment, her office recused itself from defending Cuomo not just in the sexual harassment suits but in almost all matters, and instead Cuomo has been allowed to retain private lawyers, paid for with state resources.
Ironically, the women who came forward to share their experiences of being harassed in the workplace —nine of whom were also employees of the state at the time — have not been afforded the same courtesy. Theyhave been forced to hire and pay for their own lawyers to answer a battery of demands for discovery, subpoenas and depositions from Cuomo’s state-funded attorneys. Most of these women are not party to the lawsuits themselves; they’ve been called as witnesses, then saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills.
Advocates detailed the extraordinarily aggressive tactics employed by Cuomo’s lawyers in a letter to the comptroller’s office, which oversees payments to Cuomo’s lawyers. They include the request for the gynecologic records, which they say “serve[s] only to intimidate and humiliate… while driving up litigation costs,” and a litany of other discovery demands, including serving Verizon with a subpoena for all phone records of a witness not named in the litigation without any notice.
“The lack of sufficient oversight of reimbursements has enabled Mr. Cuomo to perpetuate the harassment of women he was already found to have harassed by multiple investigations, now through the legal system and at taxpayer expense,” Erica Vladimer, the director of Harassment Free New York, and Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, wrote in a letter to the comptroller, asking the office to pause payments to Cuomo’s lawyers and conduct a thorough audit of all payments that have been disbursed so far.
New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli responded, saying that his office has “denied payments we have found to be improper,” citing his office’s decision to reject Cuomo’s request to fund Cuomo’s Freedom of Information Law litigation against the attorney general. (Andrew Cuomo, he notes, is currently suing his office to force them to pay for that litigation as well; the matter is currently before the New York State Supreme Court.)
One woman who was swept up in Cuomo’s campaign tells Rolling Stone the experience has been “financially crippling for my family.” Another accuser, Lindsey Boylan, says she expects her bills to reach $2 million before the saga is over. “I’ve spent roughly $1.5 million” on lawyers so far, Boylan says, a figure that doesn’t include “hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of trauma therapy.”
Karen Hinton, who has spoken out about her experience with Cuomo when they worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the ‘90s, counts herself as lucky: She says her lawyer was able to convince the judge that her experience with Cuomo was so far in the past it wouldn’t be relevant to a lawsuit over his behavior as governor. (Cuomo’s team insists they ultimately opted not to take her deposition.) Even so, she says, her family “spent close to $45,000” on legal bills.
“There was sexual harassment, and now there’s just financial harassment,” Hinton says.
Hinton, Boylan and others have both also been the target of online harassment by trolls who, The New York Times has reported, were being directed by Cuomo’s sister. (“KH and LB need to be frightened into shutting up right now — Enough is enough,” Madeline Cuomo reportedly wrote, referring to Hinton and Boylan, who were later attacked online.)
“There are many reasons why he shouldn’t be mayor,” Hinton says. “But the one I’m talking about now is just this: He will retaliate and punish people. It’s not just a gender thing, and he does it for both men and women. And he’ll continue to do that as mayor. That is not a healthy way to run the city.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Glavin placed the blame for the soaring cost of litigation — to taxpayers and the women involved — at James’ feet. “The Attorney General bears direct responsibility for this entire mess,” Glavin said, citing what she deemed a costly and flawed investigation that, in her view, spawned a series of plaintiffs’ lawsuits.
“To avoid time-intensive discovery and obtain critical information for the defense, we… sought the evidence underlying the $14 million reports that taxpayers had already paid for, but the AG fought us in court, spending three years and millions more taxpayer dollars to hide the evidence. As a result, defense costs ballooned and non party witnesses were roped into the case,” Glavin said. “All of these decisions were outside of Governor Cuomo’s control.”
She added, “This is America, and anyone sued is entitled to due process and the right to defend themselves, particularly against demonstrably false allegations. All of this could have been avoided had the AG not created this $14 million mess in the first place — taxpayers should be demanding answers for that.”
Cuomo, meanwhile, has quickly emerged as the mayoral frontrunner in both polls and fundraising. In the first 13 days of his mayoral campaign, he took in $1.5 million — with his tax-payer funded lawyers among his biggest campaign boosters.
An invitation to a Cuomo camapaign fundraiser obtained by New York Focus, shows Elkan Abramowitz of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Anello — a law firm New York taxpayers have paid $2.8 million to defend Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic — hosted the event at his office. Abramowitz also gave a maximum $2,100 donation to Cuomo.
Theresa Trzaskoma, another Cuomo lawyer whose firm has billed New York taxpayers $6.4 million relating to sexual harassment litigation, was co-host for that event. She gave $400. Glavin —who has been paid $5.7 million by the people of New York state to represent Cuomo — was also listed as a co-host of the fundraiser. She maxed out as well, donating $2,100 in support of his mayoral bid.
