NEW YORK — An unrepentant former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched an advertisement aimed at clearing his name on Monday, more than six months after a torrent of sexual harassment allegations drove him out of office.
The 30-second spot, which highlights decisions by New York district attorneys not to press criminal charges against him, closes with a picture of the beleaguered former governor behind an overlay of the words: “Political attacks won. And New Yorkers lost a proven leader.”
Five criminal probes of Cuomo, 64, closed without charges, although some prosecutors said they found accusations against him credible. Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes coupled his decision with a plea to lawmakers to tighten sexual harassment laws.
Cuomo, a three-term Democrat, has mostly kept a low profile since resigning, but has begun to poke his head out recently. He told Bloomberg News in an interview this month that he had been “vindicated” by the decisions of the prosecutors.
In August, state Attorney General Letitia James released a bombshell report that found Cuomo had sexually harassed at least 11 women. The probe met swift outrage and Cuomo quit after its release rather than face possible impeachment.
A November state Assembly report bolstered the findings of James’ office, saying that the evidence of Cuomo’s sexual misconduct was “overwhelming.”
But Cuomo has stridently denied the claims against him. His surrogates have painted James’ report as a partisan hatchet job.
“Accusations fly around the world at the speed of light, but the truth crawls at a snail’s pace,” Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesman, said in a statement on Monday.
“We will not rest until all the facts are out and New Yorkers understand the full scope of the craven politics and prosecutorial misconduct that permeated this process,” Azzopardi added in the statement.
James pushed back against Cuomo at the New York State Democratic Convention this month, accusing Cuomo of “attacking anyone in his path” and “pushing down others in order to prop himself up.”
In a statewide Siena College poll published last week, 33% of voters said they viewed Cuomo favorably and 60% said they viewed him unfavorably. While a quarter of the respondents said they believed Cuomo had been vindicated, 56% said they did not.
“New Yorkers are not ready to forgive and forget when it comes to Cuomo,” Steven Greenberg, Siena’s pollster, said in a statement.
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