Cuomo aide details groping allegations, calls his denials 'disgusting'

ALBANY — The aide who filed a criminal complaint against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said his unwanted groping and kissing wasn’t consensual and his denials are "disgusting," in an interview CBS News aired Monday.

Brittany Commisso, going on camera for the first time, said Cuomo is lying.

"I know what happened and so does he," Commisso, 33, who was referred to as "Executive Assistant 1" in a report accusing Cuomo of sexually harassing 11 women.

"Maybe to him, he thought this was normal," Commisso said. "But to me and the other women that he did this to, it was not normal. It was not welcomed and it was certainly not consensual."

The interview aired about 10 hours after Melissa DeRosa, the top adviser to Cuomo, resigned — a huge blow to the increasingly isolated governor who is facing potential impeachment and resisting calls to resign, even from his own party leader and President Joe Biden.

In the attorney general report outlining the alleged harassment, investigators describe more than one incident in which the 63-year-old governor grabbed and rubbed Commisso’s butt, ran his hand up her shirt and cupped her breast and leaned in for a kiss on her cheek only to swivel at the last moment and kiss her lips.

Rita Glavin, one of Cuomo's attorneys, reiterated Monday her contention that Commisso described events that never happened, that three of the accusers cited in the report shouldn't be included because the women aren't state employees and that the investigation wasn't fair to the governor in part because he didn't get an advance copy and chance to rebut before it was released publicly.

"Some of these allegations do not rise to the level of sexual harassment," Glavin said on MSNBC, about eight hours after Commisso's interview, regarding claims against Cuomo.

Commisso said she initially was afraid to come forward but changed her mind after Cuomo, faced with the initial flurry of allegations, held a March 3 press conference denying inappropriately touching anyone.

"He thinks he’s untouchable," Commisso thought when she saw that, she told CBS and the Times Union of Albany, which first reported her allegations in spring.

"Yes, you did and, yes, you have and one of them is me," she recalled thinking. She said she broke down in front of colleagues and told two of them of the incidents.

Prior to that moment, she said she was afraid to come forward, thinking she’d be transferred or fired from her "dream job" because Cuomo is so powerful. She called the moment the "tipping point."

"People don’t understand — it is the governor of the state of New York," Commisso said, then referring to Cuomo’s bullying style: "He is a professional fighter."

Cuomo has denied Commisso’s account.

"There is another complaint that I want to address from a woman in my office who said that I groped her in my home office," Cuomo said during a taped response Tuesday after the attorney general’s report was released. "Let me be clear: That never happened."

Glavin, has said the governor "doesn’t really know" Commisso. Like last week, she said the public will be "hearing from the governor directly soon."

Commisso said the unwanted touching began with hugs that began to get longer and longer with each ensuing instance. She would finish a task, get up to leave and Cuomo would ask to embrace her.

"These were not hugs, that he would give his mother or his brother," she said. "These were hugs with the intention of getting some personal sexual satisfaction out of."

Then, there was the time the governor wanted the two to take a "selfie" photograph. While posing, she said grabbed her butt: "He started rubbing it. You know, not sliding over it, not quickly brushing over it, but rubbing my butt. My hand started shaking."

The alleged breast groping incident occurred in November she said.

"He goes to give me a hug … it was probably the most sexually aggressive manner than any of the other hugs that he had given me," Commisso said. "That's when he put his hand up my blouse and cupped my breast over my bra. I remember looking down seeing his hand, which is a large hand, thinking to myself, ‘Oh, my God, this is happening.’ It happened so quick," Commisso said. "He didn't say anything when I stopped it. He just pulled away and walked away."

She has filed a criminal complaint with the Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, who said Saturday the offense, if substantiated, could lead to a misdemeanor charge against Cuomo.