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Brittany Commisso, the former executive assistant to ex-Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, has filed a s**ual harassment lawsuit against him under the NY Adult Survivors Act, which increased the time limit within which victims could sue their perpetrators for s**ual abuse or harassment that had hitherto been past their statute of limitations.
Commisso, who started working for Cuomo in 2017, previously came forward with her accusations against the former NY Governor in 2021. That year, she also lodged a misdemeanor criminal complaint against Andrew Cuomo, in which she accused him of intentionally and forcibly placing his hand under her blouse to grope an intimate part of her body.
However, prosecutors who investigated Brittany Commisso’s claims in 2022, declined to proceed with the charges against Cuomo and dismissed them. David Soares, the DA said at the time:
“While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial.”
In the current lawsuit that Commisso filed in the state Supreme Court in New York’s Albany late Wednesday, November 22, it was said that she had suffered severe damage from 2019 until August 2021 and that she had also faced retaliation after March 2021 after reporting the ex-Governor’s alleged s**ual misconduct.
Andrew Cuomo's attorney and Kathy Hochul's administration deny Brittany Commisso's claims
According to the NY Post, Brittany Commisso graduated from the State University of New York at Albany with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government, alongside business as her minor. After graduating, Commisso started working for the government, which has now been nearly a decade.
Until late 2017, Commisso served in the Albany County Alternate Public Defender’s Office before being hired as an executive assistant in then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. Although she briefly left that job after getting an opportunity to work at a state agency for a top official, Brittany Commisso returned to the Executive Chamber again in 2019 and was hired as an administrative assistant.
As per the Times Union’s report, by November of that year, Commisso was being summoned to assist Andrew Cuomo quite frequently, including working at the New York State Executive Mansion. It was around that time when the alleged misconduct began.
Brittany Commisso was married to Frank Commisso Jr. since 2016, who is a former member of the Albany Common Council and now works for the New York State Common Retirement Fund. The two got into a messy divorce in 2021 when allegations against Cuomo emerged.
In a 2021 interview with Jericka Duncan on CBS Mornings, prior to Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, Brittany Commisso spoke about the two occasions where he allegedly groped her—first in December 2019 and again in November 2020.
She told Jericka Duncan that she never planned to go public with her complaint, partly because she was afraid about what might have happened to her daughter. However, Andrew Cuomo denied the s**ual harassment allegations made by Commisso as well as several other women, saying that he had never been inappropriate with his approach to anyone.
As per the current lawsuit, a day after Cuomo’s resignation in 2021, officials with Governor Kathy Hochul demoted Commisso from her position as executive assistant and had her removed from the executive chamber's front office as well. Commisso was then assigned to "demeaning tasks such as answering telephones" in Hochul’s office until she was moved to other offices.
The summon further stated that Britanny Commisso went through ostracism, loss of overtime, demotion, and loss of career opportunities, adding:
“The continuous s**ual harassment by defendant Cuomo included unwelcome s**ual advances, s**ualized comments about appearance and personal matters, relations, their dating, their s** life, and her marriage, assignment of humiliating and demeaning tasks, hugs, kisses, s**ual touching of the b*ttocks, and forcible touching of the breast all of which was objectively unreasonable and abusive.”
Addressing the new lawsuit filed by Britanny Commisso, Andrew Cuomo’s attorney, Rita Glavin, said:
“Ms. Commisso’s claims are provably false, which is why the Albany district attorney dismissed the case two years ago after a thorough investigation. Ms. Commisso’s transparent attempt at a cash grab will fail. We look forward to seeing her in court.”
On Friday, November 24, Kathy Hochul’s office disputed that the current governor’s administration did not harm Brittany Commisso’s career in any way. A spokesman for the Governor, Avi Small, said that the claim was a mistake and that Hochul had no control over the decisions made regarding Executive Chamber personnel.
