SHOCKING REPORT RELEASED ON CUOMO ALLEGATIONS: United States
On Aug. 3, independent investigators appointed by New York Attorney General Letitia James – led by Joon H. Kim and Anne L. Clark – released their report into the multiple allegations of sexual harassment by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
After nearly five months, the investigators concluded that Governor Cuomo did sexually harass multiple women – including former and current state employees – by engaging in unwanted groping, kissing, and hugging, and making inappropriate comments. Further, the governor and his senior staff took actions to retaliate against at least one former employee for coming forward with her story.
Finally, the Executive Chamber fostered a “toxic” workplace that enabled “harassment to occur and created a hostile work environment.” The investigators find that Governor Cuomo’s actions and those of the Executive Chamber violated multiple state and federal laws, as well as the Executive Chamber’s own written policies.
The investigation was conducted after, on March 1, 2021, the Executive Chamber made a referral, pursuant to New York Executive Law Section 63(8), for Attorney General James to select independent lawyers to investigate “allegations of and circumstances surrounding sexual harassment claims made against the governor.” Kim and Clark were chosen to lead the investigation on March 8, 2021.
“This is a sad day for New York because independent investigators have concluded that Governor Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women and, in doing so, broke the law,” said Attorney General James. “I am grateful to all the women who came forward to tell their stories in painstaking detail, enabling investigators to get to the truth. No man – no matter how powerful – can be allowed to harass women or violate our human rights laws, period.”
Starting in December 2020, multiple women came forward with allegations that Governor Cuomo sexually harassed them. Over the course of the investigation, the investigators interviewed 179 individuals. Those interviewed included complainants, current and former members of the Executive Chamber, State Troopers, additional state employees, and others who interacted regularly with the governor. More than 74,000 documents, emails, texts, and pictures were also reviewed as evidence during the investigation.
Backed up by corroborating evidence and credible witnesses, the investigators detail multiple current or former New York state employees or women outside state service who were the targets of harassing conduct on the part of the governor.
As part of the investigation, Governor Cuomo also sat with the interviewers and answered questions under oath. While the governor denied the most serious allegations, the investigators found that he did so by offering “blanket denials” or that he had a “lack of recollection as to specific incidents.” The investigators also found that the governor’s recollection “stood in stark contrast to the strength, specificity, and corroboration of the complainants’ recollections, as well as the reports of many other individuals who offered observations and experiences of the governor’s conduct.”
Additionally, the investigators found that the Executive Chamber was “rife with fear and intimidation” that not only “enabled the above-described instances of harassment to occur,” but also “created a hostile work environment overall.” Further, Governor Cuomo, himself, and the Executive Chamber engaged in “retaliatory” behavior by “intend(ing) to discredit and disparage” a former employee that came forward with her story of harassment.
The investigation found that Governor Cuomo’s sexual harassment of multiple women and his and the Executive Chamber’s retaliation against a former employee for coming forward with her claims of sexual harassment violated multiple state and federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the New York State Human Rights Law, and 42 U.S. Code § 1983, in addition to the Executive Chamber’s own equal employment policies.
Jennifer Kennedy Park, Abena Mainoo, and Rahul Mukhi from the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP were all deputized – in addition to Joon H. Kim – as Special Deputies to the First Deputy Attorney General to conduct the investigation and issue this report. Yannick Grant from the law firm Vladeck, Raskin & Clark, P.C. was deputized – in addition to Anne L. Clark – as a Special Deputy to the First Deputy Attorney General to conduct the investigation and issue this report. A number of other attorneys from both Cleary Gottlieb and Vladeck were appointed as Special Assistants to the First Deputy Attorney General to assist with the investigation.
In response to the report, Governor Cuomo denied the allegations, saying in a press conference, “the facts are much different than what has been portrayed.” Meanwhile, several prominent officials have called on Cuomo to resign from office, including President Biden.
U.S. RECOVERS: Olympics
While many were concerned with how the U.S. would perform in gymnastics after Simone Biles pulled out of several events, her teammates more than picked up the slack. Sunisa Lee won gold in the all-around competition, while Jade Carey took gold in the floor exercise. MyKayla Skinner, who shares a Dec. 9 birthday with former star McKayla Maroney, replaced Biles in the vault competition and won silver.
Fortunately, Biles did compete in the balance beam, and if it is her final Olympics event, she has a bronze medal to add to her collection of seven career medals.
The big breakthrough for the U.S. came in the pool, where Caeleb Dressel dominated, taking gold in five events, including sharing one with his teammates in the 4×100 relay. On the women’s side, Katie Ledecky recovered for more gold after figuring out how to get by Australian Ariarne Titmus. If this is her final Olympiad, she finishes with a ladies’ record six gold and 10 overall medals. Whatever the future holds, Ledecky and Dressel powered the U.S. to 11 golds in the 2020 Olympics. (Although it is 2021, the event is still considered the “2020 Olympics.”)
There was a shocker on the soccer pitch, as the U.S. women’s team lost to Canada in the semifinals. To this day, no country has held both the previous World Cup and Olympics gold at the same time. Meanwhile, the men’s basketball team did advance to the semifinals with a 95-81 over Spain.
Finally, two New Jersey won gold on the track. First, Trenton’s own Athing Mu broke a U.S. record in winning gold in the women’s 800m track competition. Then, Sydney McLaughlin, who is native to a few NJ towns, broke her own world record in the 400m hurdles. Meanwhile, Newark (Delaware) native Valarie Altman won gold in discus, and Tamyra Mensah-Stock won gold in the women’s freestyle wrestling (68 kg).
Although America did well to lead in the overall medal count, as of this posting, China leads all nations in gold.
HACKING DONE RIGHT: Europe
In a first for the Ministry of Defence, 26 ethical hackers have taken part in a Bug Bounty program in collaboration with US based organization HackerOne. The 30-day challenge aimed to identify and fix vulnerabilities in cyber systems to strengthen Defence’s security and to ensure better resilience.
Bug Bounty programs provide safe environments for experts to identify areas where security can be improved. The identification of real vulnerabilities by ethical hackers is rewarded and Defence cyber teams are working with the ethical hacking community whose expertise has been extremely valuable in finding and remediating vulnerabilities – ensuring better security across Defence’s networks and 750,000 devices.
In the Integrated Review published earlier this year, the government committed to a more robust position on security and resilience, ensuring that lives and livelihoods are protected from those who may wish to do us harm. This challenge is part of wider plans to ensure transparency and collaborate with partners to improve national security.
MOD will continue to make use of the Bug Bounty expertise, in addition to other capabilities available to ensure cyber security and resilience. MOD cyber security efforts reinforce the UK Government strategy for cross-department resilience and security, lessons learned by Defence are shared with partners.
Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey said: “Bug bounty is an exciting new capability for the Ministry of Defence. Our cyber teams are collaborating with the ethical hacking community to identify and fix vulnerabilities in our systems, ensuring we’re more resilient and better protected. This work will contribute to better cyber and information security for the UK.”
Participants praised Defence for its openness and willingness to embrace new tools and capabilities to secure cyber systems. Programs like this are industry best practice and used by governments and organizations across the world to defend against possible cyber-attacks.
