Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit Thursday in opposition to a former aide who alleged he sexually harassed her in 2020. His authorized submitting got here simply days after she withdrew her own lawsuit in opposition to him.
In the submitting, Cuomo’s attorneys claimed Charlotte Bennett, a former govt assistant in his workplace, lied about him making sexual advances towards her.
“Governor Cuomo didn’t make any sexual advances towards Bennett and didn’t sexually harass her,” his attorneys wrote in a discover filed in New York state courtroom on Thursday.
Bennett was the second lady to accuse the then-governor of sexual harassment, which she stated included telling her he was “lonely” and asking her if she could be open to intercourse with an older man. She described Cuomo as “a textbook abuser” who made her “deeply uncomfortable.”
After Bennett went public along with her allegations in March 2021, Cuomo held a press convention the place he stated he felt “embarrassed” and that he “by no means knew on the time I used to be making anybody really feel uncomfortable.”
In Thursday’s submitting, his attorneys wrote the previous governor confronted “a cascade of hurt” on account of Bennett’s allegations.
Cuomo resigned in August 2021 after New York’s legal professional normal launched the results of an investigation that concluded he had sexually harassed not less than 11 ladies, together with Bennett.
When that investigation got here out, Cuomo denied ever sexually harassing ladies. “The details are a lot completely different than what has been portrayed,” Cuomo stated on the time. “I by no means touched anybody inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances.”
Last week, Bennett dropped a separate federal go well with she had filed in 2022 accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment. In a press release posted by her attorney on X, Bennett cited “invasive discovery requests” made by Cuomo’s authorized crew that included her medical data from greater than a decade in the past.
In their submitting at present, Cuomo’s attorneys notice that their discovery requests fell “beneath the foundations that govern all federal lawsuits. They alleged Bennett dropped her go well with to keep away from being deposed and to “defend the overwhelming proof of her false claims from ever turning into public.”
Cuomo’s discover stated “Bennett’s claims had been … uncovered as a sham via the invention course of.”
Bennett’s legal professional, Debra Katz, stated in a press release Thursday: “There is a protracted historical past of utilizing defamation lawsuits to silence and punish accusers of sexual harassment. It is shameful that Mr. Cuomo has apparently now chosen to go down that path.”
As a part of her assertion final week, an legal professional for Bennett stated she would nonetheless be pursuing a case in opposition to the state of New York, her employer on the time of the alleged harassment. In a separate assertion, Bennett referred to as Cuomo’s authorized filings “abusive.”
“Throughout this terribly painful two-year case, I’ve many instances believed that I’d be higher off useless than endure extra of his litigation abuse, which has precipitated extraordinary ache and expense to my household and mates,” Bennett stated. “I desperately must stay my life.”
