Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo is attempting to slap a gag order on a intercourse accuser’s attorneys to maintain them from persevering with to publicly talk about the $28 million in taxpayer funds paid out to defend him and others associated to his instances.
Cuomo is legally entitled to have the state pay for his protection prices related to his time in workplace, his camp says — but accuser Charlotte Bennett’s authorized group has been mentioning the staggering, rising authorized tab to “prejudice” him with potential jurors and to attempt to power a settlement in her case.
“There isn’t any query that such statements are gratuitous and extremely prejudicial to Governor Cuomo [indeed, intentionally so],” Cuomo’s attorneys,Theresa Trzaskoma and Rita Glavin, wrote in a Dec. 3 letter to Manhattan federal Decide Sarah Cave, searching for the gag order.
Cuomo’s authorized group is taking part in hardball because it prepares to grill Bennett in a two-day deposition Dec. 18 and 19 — a session anticipated to whole no less than 14 hours and embody questioning from different defendants’ attorneys, courtroom data present.
Different defendants embody former prime Cuomo aides Melissa DeRosa, Judith Mogue and Judith DesRosiers, who’re accused of aiding and abetting Cuomo.
Bennett claims Cuomo “subjected her to sexualized feedback about her look, assigned her humiliating and demeaning duties, and starting in early June 2020, subjected her to invasive and undesirable questions on her private life, romantic and sexual relationships, and historical past as a survivor of sexual assault,” in response to her authentic grievance filed in September 2022.
She has referred to as Cuomo a “hazard” to ladies.
However Cuomo’s authorized group is searching for to show the tables on Bennett, claiming she engaged in “impulsive and reckless private conduct” in and across the office and a “private meltdown” — and that removed from being a harasser, Cuomo was attempting to assist her.
Nonetheless, Cuomo’s aggressive protection comes at a steep worth for state taxpayers.
Knowledge obtained by The Publish by way of a authorized request reveal that state prices tied to Cuomo’s authorized protection and responses to different investigations involving him and his administration has hit $28 million — and counting.
The state has spent $16.3 million in protection prices for Cuomo and his former government chamber officers. The dough consists of $8.2 million within the ongoing “State Trooper 1 v. Cuomo” case and $8.1 million within the ongoing “Charlotte Bennett v. Cuomo” case, in response to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s workplace.
The state has spent one other $11.7 million for authorized illustration associated to the Cuomo sexual-harassment investigation, response to COVID-19 probes and his Meeting impeachment proceedings.
“We characterize former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and write to request that the Courtroom enter
a protecting order prohibiting plaintiff’s counsel from making any additional extrajudicial statements
regarding protection prices on this matter,” Cuomo’s attorneys wrote Cave within the latest letter.
Cuomo’s reps complained about feedback made by the Bennett camp in a September article within the New York Occasions discussing the skyrocketing authorized prices involving him and a press release made by Bennett lawyer Deborah Katz in a Nov. 21 press launch after a state choose refused abstract judgement in a separate harassment lawsuit that Bennett introduced in state courtroom.
Katz “sought to poison any New York jury,” his attorneys mentioned.
Bennett’s attorneys have raised Cuomo’s hefty authorized tab to attempt to stress Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Legal professional Basic Letitia James to settle a separate case filed in state courtroom, Trzaskoma and Rita Glavin mentioned.
Cuomo’s attorneys additionally blamed Bennett for courtroom delays which have jacked up prices.
Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi mentioned Sunday, “We’re outraged in regards to the prices, too” — however blamed AG James’ “costly” preliminary investigation of the sexual harassment accusations in opposition to Cuomo which can be “confirmed to be demonstrably false.
“Making an attempt to make use of protection prices as a solution to create public stress to power a settlement whatever the deserves is a cynical tactic that we’re merely not going to fall prey to,” the Cuomo rep mentioned.
Bennett’s attorneys predictably instructed the choose they oppose the gag order.
“There isn’t any authorized help for Defendant Cuomo’s request for a protecting order to gag Ms. Bennett’s counsel, and Ms. Bennett respectfully requests that the Courtroom deny his letter movement,” mentioned the plaintiff’s attorneys, Katz and Herbert Eisenberg, of their Dec. 6 response letter to Decide Cave.
Bennett’s attorneys mentioned Cuomo’s “extraordinary” proposed gag order was a part of his “scorched earth protection” they slammed as “absurd”, a violation of their free speech rights, a “pretext to smear Ms. Bennett and an try to deflect from his harassment.
Discussing these prices “can’t fairly be mentioned to affect public perspective on defendants’ legal responsibility for sexual harassment and retaliation,” Katz and Eisenberg mentioned.
It was James’ investigative report substantiating sexual misconduct claims made by a bevy of girls in opposition to Cuomo — together with Bennett — that led to his resignation in August, 2021 beneath the specter of impeachment — although he continues to disclaim the accusations.
Cuomo’s attorneys mentioned they’re digging to show his innocence.
“Not a single one in all Ms. Bennett’s allegations will face up to the mountains of contemporaneous video and textual content message proof that we now have however that had been by no means turned over to OAG [the state Office of Attorney General],” Glavin and Trzaskoma wrote.
“Governor Cuomo has little interest in settling this lawsuit. He by no means sexually harassed Ms. Bennett and he has the appropriate to show his innocence.”
