ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A judge rejected former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attempt to prolong a taxpayer-funded court battle with a woman who accused him of sexual assault, saying it wasn’t in the public’s interest to keep litigating for the purpose of repairing the Democrat’s reputation as he runs for mayor.
“Cuomo has not advanced any viable argument for why the taxpayers of this state should continue to foot the bill for his continued use of civil litigation discovery devices to further his efforts to resurrect his public image,” state Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman wrote in a decision posted online Monday.
The decision comes more than a month after New York agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit from Brittany Commisso, an ex-aide who alleged Cuomo sexually harassed and groped her while he was in office. Cuomo, who has denied the allegations, resigned as governor in 2021 after a report from the state attorney general determined that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women.
Cuomo, a co-defendant with the state, opposed Commisso’s request to discontinue the lawsuit. Relatedly, he sought to make public text messages produced under discovery he claims refute Commisso’s allegations. Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin had told a judge that potentially ending the case is a matter of “enormous public interest” as Cuomo runs for mayor.
Hartman allowed Commisso to drop the civil suit and denied Cuomo’s motion on the texts.
Cuomo is running for mayor as a independent after losing the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani by more than 12 percentage points.
With the race heating up this summer, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa has needled Cuomo over the sexual harassment allegations. And incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who also is running as an independent, recently placed whistles on reporters’ chairs at a news conference. Adams explained they were for female reporters interviewing Cuomo, in case they needed to call for help.
A spokesman for Cuomo said Tuesday that the public deserves to see what is in the texts.
“Governor Cuomo will continue to fight for the release of all the evidence because it shows he didn’t sexually harass anyone and further discredits the AG’s political report. Release the evidence and let the public decide,” Rich Azzopardi said in a written statement.
Commisso filed her lawsuit in late 2023, just before the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a law that created a yearlong suspension of the usual time limit to sue over an alleged sexual assault. She later filed a criminal complaint accusing Cuomo of groping her but a local district attorney declined to prosecute, citing lack of sufficient evidence.
The Associated Press typically doesn’t identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Commisso has done.
