One among Andrew Cuomo’s former staffers texted his associates that it “relies upon the way you outline bs” when requested if groping allegations made towards the then-governor have been true, paperwork launched Thursday revealed.
Josh Vlasto’s textual content alternate and testimony have been among the many newest cache of recordsdata launched by the New York Lawyer Normal’s workplace with reference to final 12 months’s sexual harassment probe that in the end led to Cuomo resigning.
Vlasto, who labored as Cuomo’s chief of employees from 2013 to 2014 and helped his ex-boss smear the governor’s first accuser, was despatched a Whatsapp textual content on March 13, 2021 asking: “Is the groping stuff all bs?” — that means bulls—t.
The textual content, despatched by an unidentified particular person, was in reference to Brittany Commisso’s allegations that Cuomo reached underneath her shirt and groped her in Albany’s Government Mansion.
Commisso’s allegation led to a misdemeanor prison criticism being filed towards the disgraced former governor — but it surely was dropped earlier this month.
“Relies upon the way you outline BS,” Vlasto responded to the textual content.
Somebody replied: “Beneath the shirt is legit.”
Throughout his testimony, Vlasto dismissed the textual content alternate as a “foolish WhatsApp chat with my faculty associates.”
When requested to make clear what he meant by investigator Abena Mainoo of Clear, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP, when he stated it relied on the definition, Vlasto stated: “Which means in the event that they have been telling the reality or not. Is it extra extreme or much less extreme.”
He added: “It's simply being glib on a textual content. Not placing an excessive amount of effort on a Saturday at 4 within the afternoon what I’m saying to people.”
Vlasto testified that he didn’t know which of his associates acknowledged that groping underneath the shirt was “legit.”
“However I feel he was in all probability simply suggesting if the Gov have been to do this, that might be a significant issue,” he defined.
“Do you agree with that?” requested Mainoo.
“Sure,” responded Vlasto.
Vlasto abruptly left his job as a managing director at Kivvit — a politically related public relations agency — after he was named within the lawyer basic’s scathing report as a part of Cuomo’s “internal circle.”
The report discovered Vlasto had helped Cuomo and his staff smear sexual harassment accuser Lindsey Boylan — and was instrumental in leaking her personnel recordsdata in Dec. 2020.
In an interview with investigators, Cuomo’s high aide Melissa DeRosa testified that Vlasto was the primary to give you the thought to leak Boylan’s data to journalists after she got here ahead together with her allegations.
Vlasto, in his personal testimony, advised investigators he believed Boylan’s recordsdata gave “related context for the reporters … on condition that Lindsey [Boylan] was making accusations of harassment.”
He added that he believed Cuomo had needed or permitted the leak.
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