The woman accusing Gov. Andrew Cuomo of groping her has spoken publicly for the first time since filing a criminal complaint with the Albany County Sheriff's Office.
In an interview set to air Monday, Brittany Commisso told "CBS This Morning" and the Times Union that "the governor needs to be held accountable." Before Sunday, Commisso was only known to the public as "Executive Assistant #1."
"What he did to me was a crime," she said in a promo clip of the interview published Sunday. "He broke the law."
Commisso filed a criminal complaint last week after the bombshell report dropped by New York Attorney General Letitia James, conducted by special outside investigators, concluded Cuomo had criminally sexually harassed 11 women.
The complaint is the first known instance where a woman has made an official report with a law enforcement agency over alleged misconduct by Cuomo.
'Executive Assistant #1'
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The aide who filed the report has accused Cuomo of reaching under her shirt and fondling her when they were alone in a room at the Executive Mansion last year. The woman also told investigators with the attorney general’s office that Cuomo once rubbed her rear end while they were posing together for a photo. See everything we know about her allegations from the independent review here.
One of the reasons the independent investigators say that the woman didn’t want to report the conduct was because of what she saw happen to Lindsey Boylan after she went public with her allegations.
Commisso told investigators that the efforts to discredit Boylan – which she says she personally witnessed – were conducted by Linda Lacewell (Superintendent of Financial Services), Melissa DeRosa, Rich Azzopardi and Beth Garvey.
The investigators wrote that they found Executive Assistant #1 “to be credible both in demeanor and in the substance of her allegations.”
And, they wrote, “Governor Cuomo denied a number of Executive Assistant #1’s allegations, but we found that his denials lacked persuasiveness, were devoid of detail, and were inconsistent with many witnesses’ observations of his behavior toward Executive Assistant #1 and other women in the Executive Chamber.”
The governor has denied all of the allegations involving Executive Assistant #1, saying earlier this week, “that never happened” and that he welcomed a potential civil suit from the woman because “I welcome the opportunity for a full and fair review before a judge and a jury, because this just did not happen.”
In a news conference Friday afternoon, the legal team for the governor specifically denied the claims now at issue in Albany County, one of five with an ongoing probe.
"That woman's story is false. Documentary evidence does not report what she said," said Cuomo's personal attorney, Rita Glavin. "This does not reflect what the executive assistant told the Times-Union. Why did this report ignore evidence and not want to tell you ... Two investigators did not show evidence to you, they ignored it. Ask them why."
Commisso met with investigators at the Albany County sheriff's office for about an hour last week to file the formal report and is expected to meet with them again soon for a lengthier interview, officials said Saturday.
After that, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said his office would decide whether there was sufficient evidence to move forward with any potential charges against the governor. It wasn't immediately clear when that lengthier interview would happen, nor has the sheriff's office interviewed any other people tied to the case.
Should the case warrant a criminal charge, the sheriff said it would probably involve a "misdemeanor, possibly a couple." If it comes down to that, Apple said his office would "absolutely" execute an arrest.
"We are in the infant stages of the investigation," Apple said as he acknowledged the "high-profile" nature of the case. "We have lots of fact-finding to do and a lot of interviews and I won’t rush it because of who he is and I won’t delay it because of who he is. It would be totally premature for me to comment on any of that."
Glavin said on CNN Saturday evening that she would like to see the criminal complaint and said of the sheriff: “He hasn't done any investigation and he's drawn a conclusion.”
The state Assembly’s judiciary committee plans to meet Monday to discuss the possibility of impeachment proceedings against Cuomo. Nearly two-thirds of the legislative body have already said they favor an impeachment trial if he won’t resign.
