Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is suing the state's current Attorney General, Letitia James, to release interviews from the sexual misconduct investigation that led to his resignation in 2021.
Cuomo claimed in the lawsuit, filed Thursday, that he needed the statements of witnesses in that case to confront two other accusations of sexual harassment. Furthermore, he stated: "The public has both a right and interest in knowing the work of Respondents (meaning Letitia James)."
"Every single piece of information that has come out over the last two years has done nothing but undermine Tish James' sham report," the Democratic politician said in a statement reported by CBS News. Cuomo also accused the prosecutor of hiding the evidence against him despite having promised to make it public and added:
This was a political hit job from the beginning to pave the way for Tish's failed campaign for governor and it's sad that the courts are needed to step in and order the state's top lawyer to stop violating the law.
A federal judge denied the same request last year in a different case.
New accusations
According to the lawsuit filed by Cuomo, both the interviews collected by the New York attorney general and the conclusions of her report are essential to two new cases against him: one involving a state police officer and another involving a former aide, Charlotte Bennett.
The politician's lawyers insisted on his innocence: "Governor Cuomo vehemently denies having sexually harassed anyone, and the witness statements relating to the allegations in both actions are critical to his defense."
In November, a former Cuomo aide also sued him, accusing him of subjecting her to "humiliating and demeaning tasks, hugs, kisses, sexual touching of the buttocks and forcible touching of the breast." This case does not appear in the complaint against James.
Return to politics?
Two years after resigning, various reports indicate that Cuomo would be contemplating returning to politics. The politician himself acknowledged that he did not rule out running for elections in an interview with Politico:
Do I believe I could run for political office again? Yes. I think I have a lot of options, and there are a lot of issues I’m working on now that I care about. I haven’t ruled any in; I haven’t ruled any out.
The current mayor of New York, Eric Adams' poor performance in the polls added to the investigations against him - one for abuse, another for illegal donations from the Turkish government - and even led to speculation that Cuomo could run for mayor. This is what he said to those close to him, according to Politico.
A Slingshot Strategies poll last month found that he would have been New York voters' favorite candidate to replace Adams if he resigned or was removed from office.
