Glavin: 'Governor deserves to be treated fairly'

Andrew Cuomo may be going, but he won’t be going without a fight.

Before the governor finally gave in to mounting political pressure to resign on Tuesday, Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin spent 45 minutes once again attempting to poke significant holes in state attorney general Letitia James’ report accusing the governor of multiple counts of sexual misconduct.

As she did the day James first released those findings last week, Glavin claimed that investigation was far from complete, and because of that, failed to address a number of inconsistencies she says exists between some of the stories told by women who worked with Cuomo, and records she collected.

Glavin also blamed the media for not conducting its own investigations, and instead taking James’ report only at face value.

“Over the last eight days, the media frenzy contributed to what the report was, which was the investigators acted as the prosecutors, the judge and the jury of Gov. Cuomo,” Glavin said. “Nobody vetted through the report. And I want to spend some time talking about it, because he’s been convicted in the media, and the Assembly — most of the members have made up their mind without hearing the other side.”

Glavin’s defense focused primarily on logs and email exchanges she says proved at least one of the reported incidents — where an aide said Cuomo groped her at the governor’s mansion — just couldn’t have happened.

“What was so apparent when I read the report is that the investigators didn’t bother to collect or review evidence about Nov. 16 to determine if their conclusion was correct,” Glavin said. “And everyone has to ask themselves, why didn’t they do that? Why didn’t they get all of the emails from that day? Why didn’t they speak to any of the witnesses — there were so many who were in the mansion that day.”

Glavin also complained that despite attorney general investigators interviewing well over 100 people, many of those discussions were not included in the final report. Without providing all the evidence collected, the lawyer says it’s difficult — if not impossible — for people to draw their own conclusions based on the complete picture.

One of the former staffers who spoke with the investigators stepped forward last week to share her own experiences with MSNBC anchor Yasmin Vossoughian.

“What motivated me to do this was my experience in the governor’s executive chamber, which I’ve described many times as a very dark period — the most dark period that I’ve lived through in a workplace setting,” said state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who before seeking public office, worked in Cuomo’s general counsel office.

“I know that that might sound very extreme to your viewers, but that is the extreme behavior that goes on in side of that office. The executive chamber is a place that is designed really to undermine staff. It is designed as a place where people are berated constantly. It’s something that I think is fostered by the people that surround the governor, and it’s really reinforced on a regular basis.”

Biaggi described the experience as whiplash between earning praise and being scorned. It hurt her personally because she felt the executive chamber was a place where people go to serve the public. Instead, it was a place where everyone simply served the whims of Andrew Cuomo.

“What stood out to me the most almost from the moment I walked through the door was that loyalty to the governor was the currency that overrode everything else,” Biaggi said.

Glavin insists many — if not all — the reports from women are politically motivated, matching similar claims made by Cuomo. In fact, she claims at least one of the accusers was simply retaliating because the governor wouldn’t back her in her own campaign for public office. And Glavin points to one line in the report claiming many of those interviewed did not see anything they considered sexual or inappropriate conduct.

“The governor deserves to have a full and balanced report that laid (the evidence) all out,” Glavin said. “But the report doesn’t identify who the witnesses were, what they said, or what they were asked.”

With Cuomo set to step down on Aug. 24, some might see Glavin’s defense as moot. Yet, the governor is expected to face not just civil lawsuits, but possible criminal investigations, too.

Even more, lawmakers have not ruled out moving forward with impeachment proceedings against the governor anyway, potentially barring him from seeking a return to his old job in 2022 or even 2026.

Glavin says people who step forward with harrowing stories should be listened to, but what they share must be considered only with supporting evidence.

“I think that women should be believed, and they should be treated fairly,” the lawyer said. “I also believe that men should be believed and treated fairly. All people should be given that, and everybody should have a chance to respond. And everybody should be scrutinized with what they say by facts, context and evidence. That hasn’t happened here.

“The governor deserves to be treated fairly. And that did not happen here.”