NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2021) The successor to Andrew Cuomo, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, said on Wednesday it was much too early to talk about a pardon for the New York governor who announced his resignation a day earlier amid allegations he sexually harassed nearly a dozen of the women.
"It is far too premature to even have those conversations," Hochul told reporters in her first press briefing since Cuomo named her as his replacement on Tuesday, after saying he would officially step down in two weeks.
The resignation of the 63-year-old Cuomo came a week after New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that a months-long investigation into the governor's conduct found that he harassed at least 11 women, including a policewoman assigned to protect him and an executive assistant. She said the investigation also revealed that he and a senior aide attempted to retaliate against the victims.
Consequently, President Joe Biden, a long-time political ally of Cuomo, and the majority Democrat New York State Assembly had called on the embattled governor to step down. New York state police also had said they were pursuing criminal investigations in relation to the allegations against Cuomo.
The departing governor maintained on Tuesday that to his mind, he had not done "no wrong", saying there had been "generational and cultural shifts" he wasn't aware of as a person who believed in expressing himself with touches. Some of the allegations that he groped women colleagues, touched intimate parts such as their breasts, were also "false", he said.
Hochul distanced herself Wednesday from any discussions related to ongoing investigations or action against Cuomo, saying "it's very clear that the governor and I have not been close, physically or otherwise".
