Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, including current and former government workers, whose accounts of unwanted touching and inappropriate comments were corroborated in a damning report released Tuesday by New York state Attorney General Letitia James.

The 165-page report prompted multiple calls for Cuomo to resign, including from President Joe Biden, a longtime ally of the governor, and it cast doubt on Cuomo’s political future. The Democratic speaker of the state Assembly said Tuesday that he intended to quicken the pace of a separate impeachment inquiry, adding that Cuomo “can no longer remain in office.”

The report, the culmination of a five-month investigation, included at least three previously unreported allegations of sexual harassment from women who accused Cuomo of improperly touching them, including a state trooper assigned to the governor’s security detail. It also highlighted far-reaching efforts by the governor, his staff and close associates to disparage and retaliate against one woman who made her allegations public.

All told, investigators said they corroborated the claims of 11 women, nine of whom are current or former state employees, who accused Cuomo of a range of inappropriate behavior, from suggestive comments to instances of groping, through interviews with 179 witnesses and tens of thousands of documents.

The report described in stunning detail how Cuomo’s behavior and actions by his top officials violated both state and federal law, offering a look at the inner workings of the governor’s office and how it failed to properly handle some of the women’s allegations. It also shed light on a sprawling network of associates, including former aides and close allies, enlisted by Cuomo and his staff to aggressively fight the allegations on behalf of the governor.

Investigators said Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, and his aides fostered a toxic work culture that was rife with fear and intimidation, and helped enable “harassment to occur and created a hostile work environment.”

“The independent investigation found that Gov. Cuomo harassed multiple women, many of whom were young women, by engaging in unwanted groping, kisses, hugging, and by making inappropriate comments,” James, a Democrat, said during a news conference in Manhattan, adding, “I believe these women.”

Cuomo responded to the findings in a 14-minute prerecorded statement delivered from Albany. In a sweeping, slightly disjointed soliloquy, the governor denied most of the report’s serious findings, reiterating his contention that he had never touched anyone inappropriately. He suggested the report was politically motivated and declared that “the facts are much different from what has been portrayed.”

The political fallout from the report was swift: It prompted Biden, a longtime friend of the governor, to call on Cuomo to resign Tuesday, months after stopping short of asking the governor to step down because the investigation was ongoing.

“What I said was if the investigation by the attorney general concluded that the allegations were correct, back in March, I would recommend he resign,” said Biden, who had not spoken with Cuomo. “That is what I’m doing today.”

“I think he should resign,” the president said.

New York Times News Service