Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a court filing that he intends to sue a former aide who accused him of sexual harassment.
The move came days after the aide, Charlotte Bennett, dropped her two-year federal lawsuit against her ex-boss. His civil suit against New York State is still pending and could soon be settled, his attorney, Debra Katz, told the Albany Times-Union.
In the court document warning of his own impending trial, Cuomo accused Bennett of defamation in a Dec. 9 statement in which she withdrew her federal lawsuit; Bennett alleged that Cuomo’s legal strategy had been to “harass me and my family” through his lawyers.
Charlotte Bennett
John Minchillo/AP Charlotte Bennett, former health policy aide to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, participates in an interview in New York on October 12, 2021.
Bennett began working for the administration in 2019, when she was 23, as a health policy advisor. She came forward in 2021, alleging that Cuomo asked her inappropriate and invasive questions about her relationships and sex life throughout her tenure in his office.
Cuomo’s response was to issue what Katz called a “surprising number of invasive discovery requests” for medical records ranging from optometrists to gynecologists, she said in a statement. Bennett dropped the federal lawsuit just before she was impeached.
“Cuomo fully intends to clear his name and ensure that Bennett and his agents never again repeat the lie that he sexually harassed Bennett,” his lawyers said Thursday.
Katz called his case unfounded and said it reflected “the long history of using defamation suits to silence and punish accusers of sexual harassment.”
With news feed services
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