Senator Shelley Mayer's Statement in Response to Attorney General James' Report on Governor Cuomo

Shelley B. Mayer

August 3, 2021

"Today’s report by the investigative team appointed by the Attorney General is a damning indictment of the conduct – and culture – of the Governor and his Executive team. Their detailed substantiation of the complaints of 11 individual women validates those who were courageous enough to tell the truth and then face a campaign of ridicule and retaliation for doing so. The Governor’s efforts to denigrate them and this investigation were shameful.

The report found the Governor violated both state and federal law, laws he knew full well prohibited this harassment and abusive conduct. No one should be subjected to abusive words, unwanted touching, sexualized banter and intimidating surrogates at the ready. That’s what happened here.

I applaud the courageous women who spoke the truth, and the Attorney General and her team for their work which thoroughly investigated and then validated their complaints. Now the Governor must resign immediately. That’s the right thing to do. The time is now."