ALBANY — Transcripts released Thursday by state Attorney General Letitia James' office reveal new details on the inner workings of ex-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration, as well as the methods used by the investigators enlisted by James last year to examine the spate of sexual harassment allegations against the former governor.
Here are some of the takeaways from the newly released witness interview transcripts:
Howard Zemsky
In alleging that investigators retained by James’ office were biased, Cuomo's attorney Rita Glavin has repeatedly pointed to testimony they received from the former chair and CEO of Empire State Development, New York's economic development agency.
Zemsky’s transcript details how his account of a key event concerning Cuomo shifted after Zemsky received a “jarring” text message from Lindsey Boylan, who became the first woman to publicly accuse the former governor of harassment.
Bolyan has alleged that in October 2017, during a flight on state aircraft, Cuomo suggested to Boylan, “Let’s play strip poker.” At the time, Boylan was chief of staff at Empire State Development, where she worked with Zemsky.
After Boylan made the allegation in a Medium post in February, Zemsky and several other former Cuomo aides signed onto a public statement saying, “We were on each of these October (2017) flights and this conversation did not happen.”
But in July, when Zemsky spoke to investigators Joon Kim and Anne Clark, he recalled Cuomo making the “strip poker” comment to Boylan, and gave an account of the interaction.
Asked by investigators why his account had changed since his initial public statement in February, Zemsky said that later that day, Boylan had sent him a “jarring, threatening” message that made him “think about it differently.”
According to Zemsky, the message from Boylan was, "I can't wait to destroy your life, you s__ follower.” He said it was written on the encrypted app Confide, which automatically deletes messages and does not allow for screen shots.
After getting Boylan’s message, Zemsky said he reviewed Boylan’s account of the incident and it now “struck a note of familiarity.” Initially, Zemsky said, he’d had “(no) recollection of any conversation about strip poker.”
According to Glavin, Cuomo’s attorney, the investigators conducted an informal interview with Zemsky before his deposition, which was detailed in the transcript released Thursday. And according to notes of the informal interview obtained by Glavin, Zemsky stated that his relationship with Boylan had been "more than professional." In a news conference last week, Glavin suggested that relationship could have been the basis of Boylan’s alleged threat.
During the formal interview, Zemsky was not asked about the relationship. And Glavin says that Boylan was not asked by the investigators about her text message to Zemsky.
“They never asked about it, and they didn't tell you about it” in the final report accusing Cuomo of sexually harassing Boylan and others, Glavin said. “And that tells you what this report is all about.”
The attorney general's report, released Aug. 3, did not indicate what Boylan allegedly had texted to Zemsky, or mention anything about the nature of their relationship. But it did note that Zemsky had received a "threatening" text from Boylan.
An attorney for Boylan said last week that Cuomo was conducting a “smear campaign” and that the facts of the attorney general's report, and another released by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, “speak for themselves.”
John Maggiore
Maggiore left the administration in October 2020 and in June 2021 was appointed by Cuomo as a commissioner on the state’s Public Service Commission.
His initial reaction to Boylan’s accusation was “I didn’t believe them. ... They didn’t seem credible to me.”
Maggiore said it was Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi who pushed for the development of a statement from staffers that claimed Cuomo had never suggested playing strip poker on the plane with Boylan. He said he did not recall the strip poker comment, but said “anything is possible."
Maggiore described Brittany Commisso’s groping allegation against Cuomo as “physically violent.”
Of Ana Liss’ allegations, including a photo with her and Cuomo: “I was surprised that she felt uncomfortable. Well, I was surprised that she was saying at that time she felt uncomfortable about that.”
Matthew McGrath
McGrath is the ex-husband of former Cuomo aide Alyssa McGrath, who told the New York Times in March that the former governor had stared at her body, made sexually suggestive comments and referred to her and other female aides in the office as "mingle mamas."
He told investigators "I don't have proof of this," but that his then-estranged wife, as well as Brittany Commisso, Lauren Grasso and another female aide engaged in a text chat that had been named "Cuomo's Hoes" (slang for "whores"). He added, "I wouldn't really know who came up with the name."
"My interpretation of Alyssa's relationship with the governor was that of complete respect, borderline adoration, and borderline attraction by her own words to me," he said.
He claimed Alyssa McGrath often talked about the governor's good looks and how many women adored him.
Prior to the publication of the New York Times article in March, McGrath testified his estranged wife called him and "asked me to have her back on this, ... It was like, 'Hey, I'm gonna say some stuff, you might know it's B.S., but can you keep your mouth shut?' And it wasn't in exact words, that was my interpretation of it, knowing what I know."
Larry Schwartz
The former secretary to the governor for Cuomo and a key member of the administration's coronavirus task force said "I don't recall" 131 times during his seven-hour interview with attorney general's investigators.
Schwartz didn't remember being on a call with Cuomo and others in March about the impeachment inquiry, or in being involved in a December 2020 response to Boylan’s allegations.
He denied penalizing counties, pharmacies or hospitals if they did not distribute the agreed-upon vaccine dosages. “People were worried about being penalized, not because of Larry Schwartz, but because of what we said in the (memorandum of understanding) that they signed," he said.
Schwartz resigned as the administration’s “vaccine czar” after the Legislature amended the governor’s executive order that volunteers like him would have to comply with the Public Officers Law disclosure requirements.
Anonymous staffer
An unidentified former Cuomo staff member testified there were “a handful of times” when other staff members cried over how they were treated in the chamber.
The staffer recalled instances when the former governor asked if they were married, and hugged and kissed them on the cheek during a New Year’s Eve party.
Michelle Del Rey, Brendan J. Lyons and Joshua Solomon contributed reporting.
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