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- Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennet met with investigators for four hours on Monday.
- Her lawyer Debra Katz said she provided information about the “sexually hostile work environment.”
- Bennett is one of seven women to publicly accuse the governor of sexual harassment.
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One of the former employees accusing Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment met with investigators on Monday for four hours and turned over 120 pages of documents, her lawyer Debra Katz said Monday.
Charlotte Bennett, 25, a former executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration, came forward with allegations of sexual harassment against the governor in an interview with The New York Times published February 27.
Katz said Bennett provided “detailed information about the sexually hostile work environment fostered in both his Manhattan and Albany offices.”
The lawyer added that a new detail that emerged from Bennett’s meeting was Cuomo’s preoccupation with hand size and “what the large size of his hands indicated to Charlotte and other members of his staff.”
-Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) March 15, 2021
In addition to Bennett, seven other women have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment.
The allegations of Cuomo’s harassment of female staff during his time as governor over the past decade are currently under investigation. Katz told The Times on March 1 that Bennett intended to fully cooperate with the probe.
Attorney General Letitia James has selected two powerhouse attorneys, former federal prosecutor Joon Kim and civil rights lawyer Anne Clark, who specializes in employment discrimination, to conduct a fully independent investigation of the allegations with subpoena power.
Bennett claims that Cuomo asked her inappropriate questions about her sex and dating life, including whether she had dated older men.
“As we know, abusers – particularly those with tremendous amounts of power – are often repeat offenders who engage in manipulative tactics to diminish allegations, blame victims, deny wrongdoing and escape consequences,” Bennett told The Times in early March. “It took the governor 24 hours and significant backlash to allow for a truly independent investigation. These are not the actions of someone who simply feels misunderstood; they are the actions of an individual who wields his power to avoid justice.”
Bennett’s, Katz, said at the time that Bennett intends to fully cooperate with the fledgling investigation into Cuomo’s conduct. Katz is a high-profile sex discrimination lawyer who previously represented Christine Blasey-Ford when she accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s.
“He was not acting as a mentor, and his remarks were not misunderstood by Ms. Bennett,” Katz told The Times. “He was abusing his power over her for sex. This is textbook sexual harassment.”
-Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) March 15, 2021
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