Cuomo ‘groping’ accuser Brittany Commisso opens up in CBS interview
The aide who has lodged the most serious accusations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo went public in a new interview, claiming he groped and hugged her for “personal sexual satisfaction” — and turned her “dream job … into a nightmare.”
Brittany Commisso, previously known only as “Executive Assistant #1,” tearfully detailed what she called unwanted touching during creepy encounters with Cuomo, for whom she started working in 2017.
“These were not hugs he would give his mother or his brother. These are hugs with the intention of getting some personal sexual satisfaction out of it,” Commisso, 32, said on “CBS This Morning” in an interview that aired Monday.
“And then, they started to be hugs, with kisses on the cheek. And then there was at one point, a hug and when he went to kiss me on the cheek, he quickly turned his head and kissed me on the lips.”
“He thought this was normal to me, and the other women that he did this to,” she added of the incident at the Executive Mansion in Albany. “It was not normal, it was not welcome, and it was certainly not consensual.”
Commisso alleges that on New Year’s Eve 2019, the governor groped her behind after she helped him with his “State of the State” speech.
After Cuomo suggested taking a selfie, Commisso said the 63-year-old governor began “rubbing” Commisso’s butt.
“He was to my left. I was on the right. With my right hand, I took the selfie,” she recalled.
“I then felt while taking the selfie, his hand goes down my back onto my butt, and he started rubbing it. Not sliding it. Not, you know, quickly brushing over it — rubbing my butt.”
She said she was so “nervous” that her hands began shaking, prompting Cuomo to suggest they sit on the couch because all the photos were blurry.
“I remember looking at them, and when he said, ‘Can I see them?,’ I showed him them,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘Oh, those aren’t — those aren’t good,'” and suggested they sit on the couch instead.
“So we sat down on the couch and in the photo I have my arm wrapped around his shoulder, almost as if we were taking a picture with a buddy. And I got a clear photo sitting down,” Commisso continued.
That selfie was released last week as part of New York state Attorney General Letitia James’ damning report accusing Cuomo of sexually harassing 11 women — including Commisso, whose face was blurred out.
After the New Year’s incident, the mom of one claims he groped her a second time in November last year when he hugged her in a “seuxally aggressive manner” at the mansion.
“He goes to give me a hug. It was probably the most sexually aggressive manner than any of the hugs,” she said.
“It was then I said, ‘You’re going to get us in trouble.’ I thought to myself, ‘That probably wasn’t the best thing to say.’ I was so afraid the mansion staff were going to come up and see it,” she recalled.
Commisso said Cuomo then “shut the door so hard” that she thought someone downstairs would think something was going on.
She alleges Cuomo slipped his hand up her shirt and placed his “large hand” on her bra — before leaving without saying a word.
“He came back to me and that’s when he put his hand up my blouse and cupped my breast over my bra,” Commisso said. “I exactly remember looking down, seeing his hand, which is a large hand, thinking to myself, ‘Oh, my God. This is happening.'”
Commisso added, “It happened so quick, he didn’t say anything. When I stopped it, he just pulled away and walked away.”
In March, the governor denied inappropriately touching staffers following an avalanche of accusers early in the year — a denial that prompted Commisso to come forward.
“I know the truth. He knows the truth. I know what happened and so does he,” she said in the CBS interview, calling his denials “disgusting.”
“He almost has this smirk that he thinks that he’s untouchable,” Commisso said while fighting back tears. “I almost feel like he has this sense of almost a celebrity status and it just — that was the tipping point. I broke down. I said, ‘He is lying.'”
“I felt like he was personally saying it to me that, ‘I never touched anyone inappropriately,'” she continued. “And, yes, you did.”
Commisso noted that she told colleagues about the alleged sexual assault at the time.
“I broke down. I told my co-workers a little bit,” she said.
The two colleagues reported Commisso’s allegations to senior staffers in the Executive Chamber, the attorney general’s report revealed.
Commisso, the mother of a daughter around 6 years old, said she initially was afraid to speak out because she feared a “vicious” onslaught from Cuomo and his loyal lackeys.
“I hope that the other women understand and that I’ve seen them and I support them. And I thank them, because without them, I don’t know if I would have come forward,” she said through tears.
“I was afraid that if I had come forward, and revealed my name, that the governor and his ‘enablers,’ I like to call them, would viciously attack me, would smear my name as I had seen and heard them do before to people.”
“People don’t understand that this is the governor of the state of New York,” she added. “He is a professional fighter.”
Additionally, Commisso said her initial silence was partly because she wanted to protect her young child.
“After a couple of months and processing this whole thing, I do want her to know that she has a voice,” Commisso said of her daughter. “I never want her to be afraid to speak. I never want her to be afraid of any person in power, a man or a woman.”
Asked by “CBS This Morning” co-host Jericka Duncan about the “appropriate punishment” for Cuomo, the aide said he should step aside and receive “professional help.”
“I do think he needs to resign, and I also do think he needs to seek counseling. I do think he needs professional help,” she said.
“He has many things he needs to work through.”
Last week, Commisso filed a criminal complaint against the governor. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said Saturday Cuomo could face “a couple” of misdemeanor charges.
Commisso, who has leveled the most serious sexual misconduct allegations against Cuomo, identified herself as “Executive Assistant #1” for the first time in clips of the CBS interview released Sunday, in which she said the governor “broke the law” by groping her breast under her shirt.
Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to publicly accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, on Sunday expressed support for Commisso.
“We are with you, Brittany,” she tweeted.
