More and more information is coming out about what a creepy goon, Governor Andrew Cuomo is. He sent many a grandparent to his/her death. He sexually harassed many women within his sphere of influence. Cuomo also used threats and retaliation to intimidate those who came against him.

Yesterday, NY AG Letitia James, and the outside firm she hired, laid out the details of the many instances of sexual harassment against the “Love Gov”. Icky and horrifying at the same time. Victory Girls’ own Nina, laid out the story and you can read it here. Nina mentioned the threats and retaliation, but let’s take a deeper look at his actions.

Andrew Cuomo has always come off as an arrogant, selfish and manipulative jerk, even back when he was Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Ten political life times ago, March of this year, the New York Times noted:

For Mr. Cuomo, politics has always been a zero-sum game: For him to win, someone else must lose, whether it is the legislator whose idea he is taking credit for, or Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose initiatives he routinely stomped. The same domineering approach that won plaudits in the depths of the coronavirus crisis has bruised a generation of Mr. Cuomo’s peers, such that many were ready to turn on him once vulnerable.

What a guy! Later in the article there’s this golden nugget:

Mr. Cuomo’s bullying — a long-known aspect of his style — has been cast by his allies as simply his way of getting things done. He has strong-armed legislators and anyone else who dared cross him in a decade-long run of productivity that included legalizing gay marriage, passing stronger gun control measures, raising the minimum wage and beginning numerous major infrastructure projects.

But those tactics are now being seen in a different light, helping create an office culture that could be toxic, particularly for young women.

Bullying and a toxic office culture. Sounds like threats and intimidation. Cuomo threatens and intimidates everyone, not just young women. Ask fellow Democrat and NY Assemblyman Ron Kim:

Kim also recounted the events for the peahens at The View:

“I was about to bathe my three kids when I received a call from the governor. He spent ten minutes threatening my career and ordering me to issue a statement that would be used to cover for the state secretary,” Kim said.

Kim said he expected to celebrate the Lunar New Year with his family that weekend, but added that was interrupted by “many calls” and “many other attempts” made by Cuomo and his staff to get in contact with him. “I realized that [Cuomo]’s continuing to ask me to cover up for [DeRosa],” he said. “At that point I needed to get an attorney, which I did over the weekend.”

“Cuomo is an abuser,” Kim alleged. “He has abused his powers. Abusers are cowards.”

In this next instance of intimidation, Cuomo didn’t personally leak the information, but the fish rots from the head down. Cuomo set the tone for his administration and his fearful minions did what they thought he would want. They leaked personnel files about Cuomo accuser Lindsey Boyle:

According to the report, Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s top aide, saw Boylan’s tweet and asked Alphonso David — who previously served as Cuomo’s top lawyer, and now works as the president of the Human Rights Campaign — for Boylan’s “full file.”

David sent those to Rich Azzopardi, a top Cuomo advisor. Azzopardi sent those files to reporters at The New York Times, the Associated Press, The New York Post, and other publications, according to the report.

“The evidence obtained in our investigation revealed that the complainants’ fears of retaliation were justified,” the report says. “In response to Ms. Boylan’s allegation of sexual harassment, first made in a tweet on December 13, 2020, the Executive Chamber engaged in a series of responsive actions that were intended to discredit and disparage Ms. Boylan.”

And, from The Intercept, we learn more about his use of infosec to suit his purpose:

The Cuomo administration’s strategic relationship to public records also resurfaced in the scandal. When digging up records serves Cuomo’s interests, they come readily to hand. His government claimed in 2014 that it had no records of the governor’s travel expenses for his first three years in office, but it swiftly scrounged up flight manifests this spring in an effort to rebut reports that the governor sexually harassed Boylan on a shared flight. Weaponizing public records further, after Boylan’s claims gained media attention, Team Cuomo released human resources records depicting her as a bad boss.

Back in March of this year, Fox News personality Janice Dean sent out this tweet about Andrew Cuomo:

Top Cuomo officials 'threatened' nursing home reps during call https://t.co/66j0wjepvm

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) March 29, 2021

The bad news is Dean’s in-laws were among the 15,000 nursing home deaths. The good news is that threats and intimidation don’t work with her. She doesn’t care about Cuomo.

If only we could have a twofer. Andrew Cuomo impeached for sexual harassment and jailed for callously sending the elderly to their deaths. Life isn’t that elegant, but eternity is a long, long time.

Featured Image: Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)