Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo submitted a notice that he would be filing a defamation lawsuit against a former aide.
On Thursday, the disgraced former New York governor filed the notice against Charlotte Bennett who previously filed a federal lawsuit against him for sexual harassment, claiming that she defamed him through the process.
Fox News has more:
“The nature of this action is to recover compensatory and punitive damages for the serious injuries and losses that Governor Cuomo has suffered and will continue to suffer as a result of the December 9, 2024 false statement by Bennett and her agents that Governor Cuomo ‘sexually harassed’ Bennett,” a legal notice filed by Cuomo against Charlotte Bennett on Thursday reads.
“Bennett’s agents tweeted this statement on December 9, 2024 with the headline: “Debra Katz and Charlotte Bennett issued statements on news that Bennett voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the SDNY against Andrew Cuomo, who sexually harassed her.” Bennett reposted her agents’ tweet, which has garnered more than 90,000 views. The December 9 Defamatory Statement – which was intended to be and was widely disseminated and which was made in the wake of Bennett and her agents’ numerous prior public accusations against Governor Cuomo – was false and defamatory, and Bennett made it knowing full well that it was false and intending to cause harm to Governor Cuomo.”
Bennett was one of several women to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, which ultimately contributed to his resignation in 2021.
Bennett dropped her lawsuit against Cuomo, which she filed in 2022, this December on the eve of her deposition in the case.
Cuomo spokesperson Richard Azzopardi praised Bennett’s decision to drop the case at the time, saying that her claims “falsely smeared” the former governor “for years.”
“Ms. Bennett’s decision to drop her baseless lawsuit should be viewed as a complete capitulation and a desperate attempt to avoid being confronted with the mountains of exculpatory discovery – including contemporaneous texts and videos that the AG’s office never obtained – that completely refute her claims against Governor Cuomo,” he said, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“After falsely smearing Governor Cuomo for years, Ms. Bennett suddenly withdrew her federal lawsuit on the eve of her deposition to avoid having to admit under oath that her allegations were false, and her claims had no merit,” he said. “If New York State does give in to her public pressure campaign and settles, it will not be on the merits and should require the public release of all the evidence so that New Yorkers finally know the truth: Governor Cuomo never sexually harassed anyone.”
Bennett’s lawyer, Debra Katz pushed back against Cuomo’s notice of claim in a statement to the Times Union, saying it has “no merit.”
“There is a long history of using defamation lawsuits to silence and punish accusers of sexual harassment,” Katz said. “It is shameful that Mr. Cuomo has apparently now chosen to go down that path.”
Cuomo’s notice alleges that Bennett “cynically used” conversations with Cuomo to “advance” her career and that her “false allegations materially contributed to a cascade of harm to Governor Cuomo.”
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