New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been confronted with colliding public controversies in recent weeks: his administration's under-reporting COVID-related nursing home deaths, and mounting allegations of sexual misconduct. Below are key moments from the past year, from the start of the pandemic in March 2020 — as the governor began to attract a national spotlight for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis — through the present day.
March 1, 2020: First confirmed COVID-19 case in New York State.
March 7, 2020: Cuomo declares a state of emergency with 89 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
March 18, 2020: With COVID-19 infections skyrocketing, Mayor Bill de Blasio calls for a “shelter in place” order like San Francisco had already implemented. Cuomo pushes back.
March 22, 2020: Governor Cuomo orders New York State to go on “PAUSE," essentially a "shelter in place" order.
March 25, 2020: The State Health Department orders nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals to free up hospital capacity.
April 3, 2020: Cuomo signs the state budget, including a controversial provision that shields nursing homes and hospitals from liability for COVID-19 deaths. The budget also grants Cuomo sweeping new emergency powers that allow him to essentially write new laws.
April 17, 2020: New York state releases partial data of where COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes occurred, accounting at that point for 2,722 deaths.
May 5, 2020: State officials add “presumed” deaths to their count of nursing home deaths, bringing the state’s count to nearly 5,000 deaths. They also confirmed at a press conference that they were excluding the deaths of nursing home residents who died in hospitals from that tally.
May 10, 2020: Cuomo rescinds the order requiring nursing homes accept COVID-19 positive patients.
May 15, 2020: Then-gubernatorial aide Charlotte Bennett is allegedly subjected to a conversation with Cuomo in his office that she later described as "something out of a horror movie," recalling that he repeated details about her sexual assault: “You were raped, you were raped and abused and assaulted."
May 22, 2020: The Associated Press reports more than 4,500 COVID-19 patients were sent into nursing homes after the March 25th order.
June 5, 2020: Bennett is allegedly subjected to a second conversation with Cuomo in which he told her he was lonely, looking for a girlfriend, and was comfortable dating women over the age of 22.
June 29, 2020: Cuomo unveils a large plastic COVID mountain during a press conference, meant to represent the rise and fall of virus-related deaths at that point in time.
July 6, 2020: New York State health officials release a preliminary report on deaths in nursing homes and argue that the March 25th order didn’t contribute to more deaths in long-term care facilities.
July 10, 2020: Cuomo tells WAMC’s Alan Chartok he’s considering writing a book about the lessons he learned during the pandemic.
July 13, 2020: During a press conference (and again later on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), Cuomo introduces a COVID mountain poster, and begins selling it for $14.50 from the NY state website.
July 24, 2020: State lawmakers vote to repeal some of the controversial immunity provisions that shielded hospitals and nursing homes from COVID-19 liability, but it fell short of a full repeal because the repeal wasn’t retroactive, meaning families who lost loved ones to COVID during the height of the pandemic still can’t sue.
August 3, 2020: The New York State legislature holds a hearing about nursing homes and state oversight, pressing state officials for the number of New Yorkers who lived in nursing homes but died of COVID in hospitals. Also on this day, the Empire Center for Public Policy files a Freedom of Information Request for deaths of nursing home residents.
August 18, 2020: Cuomo announces his book deal is official.
August 20, 2020: The state legislature sends a letter to Cuomo’s office, requesting full data on nursing home deaths among other information regarding nursing homes.
August 26, 2020: The U.S. Justice Department requests data on nursing home deaths from New York, and three other Democrat-led states, to determine whether the March 25th order contributed to more nursing home deaths and if an investigation was warranted. At that point 6,600 people had died in nursing facilities, according to the state’s deflated count that still did not include nursing home residents who died in hospitals.
September 18, 2020: The Empire Center for Public Policy sues Cuomo for nursing home death records, after their freedom of information request was denied.
October 13, 2020: Cuomo's book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, is released.
November 23, 2020: Cuomo wins an Emmy for his pandemic briefings.
December 13, 2020: Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Cuomo running for Manhattan Borough President, tweets about being sexually harassed by Cuomo but declines further interviews.
January 28, 2021: State Attorney General Letitia James releases report on COVID-19 in nursing homes, confirming that the state was not counting deaths that occurred in hospitals as nursing home deaths. Within several hours of the publication of her report, the state health department released a new count of nursing home deaths that included 3,829 people who died in hospitals, which the state had not been previously reporting. That brought the total of nursing home COVID-19 deaths to 12,743 people.
February 3, 2021: State Supreme Court Judge Kimberly O'Connor orders the state to release nursing home records requested by the Empire Center for Public Policy.
February 6, 2021: State releases more data on deaths in long-term care facilities to the Empire Center for Public Policy revealing another 1,500 previously uncounted deaths of residents of assisted living facilities and other adult-care facilities who died in hospitals. (Previously the state had released this number but just for nursing homes.) That brought the death toll in all long-term care facilities in the state to more than 15,000.
February 10, 2021: Democratic state lawmakers speak to top aides to Cuomo on a zoom call, in which Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa admits they withheld information on nursing homes from the public and state lawmakers because of a probe from the federal government.
February 11, 2021: The Associated Press reports 9,000 COVID-19 positive patients were sent into nursing homes at the height of the pandemic, greater than earlier figures released by the state. The New York Post reports on the private call with lawmakers and Cuomo’s aides and quotes Assemblymember Ron Kim. Later that night Kim said he received a threatening phone call from the governor’s office demanding he retract his statement.
February 15, 2021: Cuomo admits he created “a void” that allowed disinformation to spread by withholding nursing home data.
February 17, 2021: Cuomo lashes out at Assemblymember Kim for more than twenty minutes during one of his regular press briefings. Kim later tells Gothamist and other news outlets about the threatening phone call he received from the governor six days earlier. Kim’s account launches a torrent of stories on social media and in news reports from New Yorkers who said they received similar bullying phone calls from Cuomo and his top aides.
February 18, 2021: The Times Union reports federal prosecutors are once again probing Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.
February 24, 2021: Former aide Boylan publishes a Medium post describing inappropriate sexual advances Cuomo had allegedly made towards her while she worked for the state between 2015 and 2018. Boylan described Cuomo asking her if she wanted to play “strip poker,” alleged that he went out of his way to touch her lower back and legs, and claimed that when she was leaving a private meeting with him he abruptly kissed her on the lips. She resigned shortly after the 2018 encounter.
February 27, 2021: A second former aide to Cuomo, Charlotte Bennett, comes forward with allegations he made sexually explicit comments to her when she was working in his office the prior summer. Calls for an investigation into sexual harassment in Cuomo’s office mount. Cuomo first tries to select a longtime ally, federal judge Barbara Jones, to lead the investigation.
February 28, 2021: Cuomo’s office and Attorney General James issue dueling public statements about how the investigation will be conducted. Cuomo suggests James and the Chief Judge of the State Court of Appeals, Janet DiFiore, a Cuomo appointee, should undertake the investigation together. James’s office pushes back, again calling for a referral from the governor that would grant her subpoena power and allow her to call witnesses. Facing public pressure, Cuomo eventually relents that evening.
March 1, 2021: Attorney General James receives letter of referral from the governor’s office allowing her to officially launch an investigation. Later that night, a third woman, Anna Ruch, came forward to allege inappropriate conduct by the governor. Ruch said she was at a wedding in 2019 when Cuomo, whom she had never met, touched her back, grabbed her face, and kissed her on the cheek against her will.
March 3, 2021: After halting his regular press briefings and public appearances for seven days, Cuomo reappeared to address the allegations of sexual harassment. He said he was embarrassed and ashamed, and sorry for making people feel uncomfortable, but denied touching anyone inappropriately. So far, two of the women, Boylan and Ruch, said they were touched inappropriately. Another woman who still worked for Cuomo reportedly heard these comments and broke down in front of colleagues, and later confided to her supervisors that she’d been “aggressively groped” by Cuomo in the executive mansion late last year.
March 4, 2021: Bennett goes on CBS Evening News and shoots down the governor's apology, calling him a “textbook abuser.”
Nearly a dozen current and former staffers of Cuomo’s office speak to Gothamist/WNYC about the intense work culture Cuomo created, which was brutal for some, traumatic for others — among them is Ana Liss, who days later would offer more details.
Later in the evening, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report Cuomo’s top aides deliberately removed the deaths of nursing home residents that occurred in hospitals from their July health department report, artificially deflating the nursing home death toll.
March 5, 2021: The state legislature votes to revoke the emergency powers to write new laws it had granted Cuomo the previous April. James sends a letter to Cuomo’s office requesting he preserve documents that could pertain to the sexual harassment investigation, an indication the probe is underway.
March 6, 2021: Two more former Cuomo staffers come forward with allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct; Ana Liss, who worked in his office between 2013 and 2015, and Karen Hinton, who worked for Cuomo in 2000 when he led the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
March 7, 2021: State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, calls for Cuomo’s resignation. Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie says he agrees with the sentiment, and says Cuomo should “seriously consider” whether he can continue to lead the state. Cuomo says he will not resign, saying it would be “anti-democratic” for him to do so.
March 8, 2021: Attorney General James announces she’s appointed former federal prosecutor Joon Kim and employment attorney Anne Clark to spearhead the investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo.
March 9, 2021 One of Cuomo’s current employees in the state’s executive chambers alleges inappropriate sexual conduct by him, making her the sixth woman to describe unwanted sexual advances, and the fifth person he worked with to do so.
March 10, 2021 More details emerge about the latest sexual harassment allegation against Cuomo, with reports that a current female staffer told a supervisor that the governor fondled her under her shirt. The incident allegedly happened late last year, when the woman was summoned to the governor's private residence inside the Executive Mansion.
While this accounts for the past year to date, Cuomo’s controversies began long before the pandemic — here’s a brief history of his three terms in office.
March 11, 2021 More than 50 state lawmakers and Mayor Bill de Blasio call for Cuomo to resign. The state assembly authorizes their own investigation of misconduct of the governor, which could be a precursor to an impeachment vote — though more left-leaning lawmakers, less loyal to Cuomo, described it as a stall tactic.
March 12, 2021 Most of New York’s Congressional delegation joins calls for Cuomo to resign. Cuomo again denies any wrongdoing and likens calls for his resignation to cancel culture. U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand also call for Cuomo to step down later that evening.
March 17, 2021 State Assembly announces it has selected the law firm Davis Polk to conduct its investigation into Cuomo. Cuomo appears in Harlem surrounded by allies lauding his leadership at a press conference that excluded press.
March 18, 2021 More reports of inappropriate behavior towards female reporters are published in the Daily Beast.Ronan Farrow publishes an account in the New Yorker detailing more specifics of the harassment Lindsey Boylan says she faced in Cuomo’s offices.
March 19, 2021 Reports from THE CITY and the New York Times reveal the federal probe into Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes is beginning to take shape.
Later that day, Alyssa McGrath, the only current state employee to speak publicly, says Cuomo stared at her breasts, nicknamed her and her colleague "mingle mamas" and kissed her on the forehead, in a report from the NY Times.
March 23, 2021 The State Judiciary committee questions attorneys from the firm Davis Polk who will handle the assembly’s probe into Cuomo’s alleged misdeeds. Topics their probe will cover are vast; from nursing homes, structural issues on the Mario Cuomo Bridge, to sexual harassment and retaliation, it’s expected to take months before completion.
May 17, 2021 The governor's office releases topline details of his 2020 earnings, and it turns out his pandemic leadership book deal is worth more than $5 million: He was paid $3,120,000 in 2020, with another $2 million to be paid in 2021.
July 2021 It's revealed that Cuomo has raised $2.2 million in donations for his 2022 campaign war chest in spite of the scandals. He has at around $18 million, some of which is being used for his legal defense.
August 3, 2021 AG James releases a scathing report corroborating allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, including a new accuser—a state trooper assigned to the governor's personal security detail who says he touched her in a way that made her feel "violated"—and that he violated state and federal laws.
President Joe Biden and others call on Cuomo to resign. Cuomo gives a pre-recorded statement refuting the allegations.
August 4, 2021 The Manhattan District Attorney's office confirms it is seeking evidence from the AG's office for possible criminal investigations into Cuomo's misconduct. Other district attorneys also looking into possible criminal behavior include those from Westchester, Oswego, Nassau, and Albany Counties.
August 5, 2021 The executive assistant who accused Cuomo of groping her in the Executive Mansion files a criminal complaint with the Albany County Sheriff's office.
New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs tells Gothamist/WNYC that he had been trying to get the governor to resign "in a dignified manner," but that Cuomo, it seemed, would "like to see more time go by and have a greater opportunity to make his case
August 6, 2021 Cuomo's private attorney Rita Glavin questions the credibility of the AG's report and the accusers in a press conference broadcast on the New York State website.
August 7, 2021 Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple says that his office is investigating the criminal complaint against Cuomo:"I’m not going to rush it because of who he is, and I’m not going to delay it because of who he is."
August 8, 2021 Brittany Commisso comes forward as the executive assistant to the governor who accused him of groping her. Hours later, governor’s most trusted aide, Melissa DeRosa, resigns.
August 9, 2021 The New York Assembly Judiciary Committee's chair Charles Lavine outlines steps for the committee to consider articles of impeachment, including public hearings involving experts on sexual harassment and impeachment. He notes that the committee is looking at the sexual harassment allegations, as well as the coverup of nursing home deaths, the pandemic book deal (and whether he used state resources to write it), and whether he obtained rapid COVID tests for family members and associates.
Assemblymember Lavine and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that the process would take "weeks, not months."
Earlier in the day, Roberta Kaplan, co-founder of Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, resigns from the group because of her involvement in advising Cuomo, and the Human Rights Campaign's board announces an investigation into its president Alphonso David, former general counsel to Governor Cuomo and another person who advised Cuomo about his scandals.
August 10, 2021 Cuomo announces he will step down and that his resignation will be effective in 14 days. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will become New York's first woman governor.
October 28, 2021 The Albany County Sheriff's Office files misdemeanor forcible touching charges, related to Commisso's groping allegations, against Cuomo. He is expected in Albany City Court on November 17th.
