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Third Woman Accuses Governor Cuomo Of Harassment As Calls For His Resignation Grow Louder
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Gwynne Hogan
Published Mar 1, 2021
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Governor's office
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Mar 1, 2021
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A third woman has accused Governor Andrew Cuomo of touching her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable, alleging that he forcibly kissing her on the cheek while she was at a wedding in 2019. Anna Ruch, 33, who previously worked in the Obama White House as a photo editor and for the Biden campaign last year, described the encounter in an Instagram post Sunday.
“[He] slid his hand on my lower back which I promptly removed and then he proceeded to grab my face with both hands and asked if he could kiss me,” she wrote, adding that he then kissed her on the cheek. She posted the comments alongside an image of the governor clasping her face between his hands, while she looked visibly nervous and unable to move. “Then [he] told me I was aggressive.”
She elaborated on the incident further in an interview with the New York Times, which first reported her account on Monday night. Unlike the first two women who were staffers in his office, Ruch had never met Cuomo before the 2019 encounter.
“I was so confused and shocked and embarrassed,” she told the Times. “I turned my head away and didn’t have words in that moment.”
Ruch’s friend, who asked not to be named, said she was at the 2019 wedding and witnessed the incident play out before her eyes.
“My main takeaway that night was that the harassment seemed like nothing out of the ordinary for the governor,” she told Gothamist in an email. “It happened and he moved on.”
On Monday night, Rep. Kathleen Rice became the first member of New York's congressional delegation to call for his resignation. “The time has come,” she tweeted. “Governor Andrew Cuomo must resign.”
Ruch is the third woman in six days to describe sexual impropriety by Cuomo, and the second woman to detail a forcible kiss by him. Last week, Lindsey Boylan, a former Cuomo staffer, recounted in a lengthy Medium post how the governor had kissed her against her will, touched her, and made inappropriate comments in her over three years of working for him.
Then on Saturday, Charlotte Bennett, a second former aide, described what she interpreted as grooming by the governor. She said that after she opened up to him as a survivor of sexual assault, he asked her questions about her sex life, suggested she get a tattoo on her buttocks, and told her he felt comfortable dating women in their twenties.
After Ruch described what had happened to her, Bennett expressed her solidarity with Ruch on Twitter.
“I stand with Anna Ruch,” she wrote. “His inappropriate and aggressive behavior cannot be justified or normalized. Thank you for your courage and strength. Here for you always.”
Cuomo, who typically hosts hour-long press conferences three times a week, has not appeared in public since last Wednesday, the same day Boylan came forward.
Cuomo did not return a request for comment on Monday night. On Sunday, the governor released a statement conceding that some of his comments may have “been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation,” but insisted that he "never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm.”
Referencing that statement, an attorney for Bennett, Debra Katz, tweeted on Monday: “I wonder whether the Governor is going to accuse Anna Ruch of misunderstanding his intentions too."
Attorney General Letitia James officially launched a probe into allegations of sexual harassment in Cuomo’s office on Monday, after she received authorization from his office to do so. The authorization came after the governor tried to appoint two different political allies to aid in the investigation. James pushed back on the governor’s offers insisting she needed subpoena power and the freedom to conduct an independent review.
Ruch’s account is the latest in a firestorm of accusations about Cuomo and his top staffers that have emerged in the two weeks since Assemblymember Ron Kim publicly spoke about receiving a threatening phone call from the governor.
Kim had criticized Cuomo for his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic and for withholding the true death toll from state lawmakers and the public for nearly a year. He said the governor called him threatening to “destroy” him. Since then, politicians, federal employees, city and state elected officials and reporters have described similar bullying tactics from Cuomo and his top staffers.
Following Ruch’s account, other Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for Cuomo to resign, including City Council Member Brad Lander, Assembly Member Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, State Senator Gustavo Rivera, and State Senator John Liu.
Tagged
governor cuomo
sexual harassment
Lindsay Boylan
Charlotte Bennett
Anna ruch
Attorney General Letitia James
Cuomo in Crisis
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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