In Spring 2019, Charlotte Bennett began to work for Cuomo as a health policy adviser. Within a short time, the pretty 25-year-old found herself promoted to the position of senior briefer and executive assistant. She felt that Cuomo was her mentor. Now she claims that he was a “textbook abuser.”
For Bennett, the sense of Cuomo was someone looking out for her ended in Spring 2020, when she moved to Albany and the governor, who was now becoming a media star, became excessively interested in her sex life. At that time, she said, “I think he felt like he was untouchable in a lot of ways.”
The trigger for Cuomo making the moves on Bennett started when she told Cuomo that she’d once been raped. According to her, he became fixated on that subject.
In June, while at work, the 62-year-old Cuomo told Bennett he was “lonely” and “looking for a relationship.” Says Bennett, “Asked if I had trouble enjoying being with someone, because of my drama….The governor asked me if I was sensitive to intimacy.”
As if that wasn’t sufficiently creepy, Cuomo, who had recently broken up with his girlfriend, offered that he was willing to date “anyone over 22.” To Bennett, Cuomo was stating that “he’s trying to sleep with me. The governor’s trying to sleep with me. And I’m deeply uncomfortable. And I have to get out of this room as soon as possible.”
What makes this allegation very bad for Cuomo is the fact that there is contemporaneous evidence. Immediately after the event, Bennett texted a friend, telling her everything that had happened between her and Cuomo, adding, “It was like the most explicit it could be.”
In a different conversation, when Bennett told Cuomo she was thinking of getting a tattoo, the governor of the State of New York told her to get one on her buttocks. Because that’s not at all inappropriate for the highest political office holder in the state to tell a 23-year-old employee.
Bookmarks