Andrew Cuomo and his then-married top aide, Melissa DeRosa, were in an “emotional romantic relationship” while he was New York governor, according to bombshell testimony obtained by The Post.
But Cuomo — who is running for New York City mayor — seemingly failed to disclose any such relationship to Attorney General’s Office investigators probing sexual harassment allegations that prompted his resignation in August 2021.
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Another former Cuomo aide, Josh Vlasto, told the AG’s office that June that DeRosa had confided in him about the relationship, according to an unredacted transcript of his testimony.
“There was a conversation with Melissa where she told me at one point that she had an emotional romantic relationship with the Governor,” Vlasto said under oath, in a portion of the transcript that was later redacted by the AG’s office.
“She said that to me. She said we had an emotionally intimate relationship.”
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Vlasto said DeRosa told him that she and the governor “have not had sex and we are not crossing that line or something like that,” according to the transcript.
According to Vlasto’s testimony, DeRosa asked him for advice in early March 2021, when she learned the Daily Mail was about to publish a photo of her and the governor having an intimate conversation over dinner.
“Ultimately that is when she told me that that was the nature of their relationship. It was emotionally intimate was the words she used,” Vlasto said.
The two planned to deny the existence of any relationship at the time. And DeRosa was considering whether to continue the relationship, Vlasto said, according to the transcript.
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“We both though [sic] it was better to deny any relationship at this point,” Vlasto testified, recalling what DeRosa allegedly told him.
“That was sort of so much going on, that their personal life is their personal life and his view and mine was that if they wanted to deny it that was probably the rise course to move on from any speculation about them,” he said.
During Cuomo’s interview under oath the following month, the three-term Democrat was asked whether he’d had any romantic relationships with any members of his staff.
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“No,” the governor replied.
“Never?”
“Never,” Cuomo said.
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An alleged relationship between DeRosa and Cuomo was also hinted at in previously-reported testimony from an anonymous state trooper on the governor’s security detail who accused him of sexual harassment.
She told investigators the two had been seen by other troopers “making out on the sidewalk like high schoolers.”
Vlasto worked for Cuomo during the governor’s first term. He had been brought as an outside adviser to Cuomo as the administration faced an onslaught of scandals related to the COVID-19 pandemic and sexual harassment allegations.
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The Daily Mail eventually published the photo of Cuomo and DeRosa on March 1, 2021, but, as Vlasto testified, the administration was never asked about it by reporters at the time.
In response to the trooper’s allegations, both DeRosa and Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi denied the existence of a relationship at the time.
“The things this person says is flat-out false,” DeRosa wrote in a statement about the trooper’s allegations.
Attorneys for DeRosa, who has since split up from her husband, said in a statement after publication: “This was all discussed 5 years ago — the conversation with Josh was that the daily mail was implying that Ms. DeRosa had a physical relationship with the governor, which was untrue.”
“In the conversation Ms. DeRosa told Josh that the two had an emotionally intimate relationship based on years of working together in a high stress environment,” the statement said. “All of this is in transcripts that have been publicly available for years, except portions that were redacted by the AG that they have fought turning over in court, but somehow made their way into the hands of the New York Post — calling into question potentially unethical activity by the Attorney General’s Office for political purposes.”
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Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi called the allegations “silly and ridiculous.”
“Vlasto’s conversation was in the context of an outlet trying to write a story about a physical relationship that was absolutely false. Of course after seven years of working together for New York, the Governor and Melissa were emotionally close – we all were after going through COVID and everything else together,” he said in a statement.
Vlasto did not immediately return a request for comment.
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The AG’s office has historically redacted personally and potentially embarrassing information from transcripts, including in investigations such as the one into Cuomo.
A spokesperson for AG Letitia James said the unredacted transcript had been accidentally posted and was quickly replaced with the redacted version at the time.
“An unredacted transcript was accidentally posted for less than two hours during the initial release of these files. The office immediately removed the unredacted version once it was discovered,” the statement said.
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Cuomo resigned a week after James’ office released a report on its investigation, which found that the governor sexually harassed at least 11 women, and as he faced growing calls for his ouster, which he claimed was politically motivated.
He has emphatically denied all the claims, and continues to fight them in ongoing lawsuits.
The shocking new details come as Cuomo tries to resurrect his political career in a bid for mayor.
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The powerhouse politician — who faces incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and a slew of other opponents in the heated Democratic primary — has been leading in the polls for months, even before entering the race officially on March 1. The latest survey had him at 38% with likely voters, but pollsters have noted his negatives, including trustworthiness could prove to ding him in the race down the line.
