For the first time, a current aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo has gone on record and accused her boss of sexual harassment. Alyssa McGrath, 33, told the New York Times that the governor ogled her body, made comments about her looks, and engaged in other kinds of flirtatious and inappropriate behavior while she worked for him. It marks the latest accusation of sexual harassment and other kinds of inappropriate behavior against the Democrat who is holding on to his office despite facing bipartisan calls to resign.

McGrath recounted one instance in which the harassment seemed particularly egregious when she was called into his office to take dictation. “I put my head down waiting for him to start speaking, and he didn’t start speaking,” she said. “So I looked up to see what was going on. And he was blatantly looking down my shirt.” She said Cuomo then asked her, “‘What’s on your necklace?’ Which was in my shirt.” McGrath said she started having uncomfortable interactions with Cuomo pretty much since she was hired in mid-2018. “He has a way of making you feel very comfortable around him, almost like you’re his friend,” McGrath said. “But then you walk away from the encounter or conversation, in your head going, ‘I can’t believe I just had that interaction with the governor of New York.’”

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McGrath said that her feeling that these interactions with the governor were inappropriate only grew after other women started speaking up about their own experiences. Over the last few weeks, she was in disbelief at how Cuomo reacted to the numerous women who have come forward with allegations of harassment and inappropriate behavior. “It makes me really upset to hear him speak about this and completely deny all allegations,” she said. “And I have no doubt in my mind that all of these accusers are telling the truth.”

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McGrath spoke up shortly after a report that another current aide accused Cuomo of groping her breast in the governor’s mansion, but she has not been publicly identified. McGrath says the aide told her about the incident after it was made public and claims the governor told her not to talk about it. “He told her specifically not to tell me,” McGrath said.

Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, dismissed McGrath’s claims with the same kind of defense that the governor has used to brush away the numerous allegations against him. “The governor has greeted men and women with hugs and a kiss on the cheek, forehead, or hand. Yes, he has posed for photographs with his arm around them. Yes, he uses Italian phrases like ‘ciao bella’,” she said. “None of this is remarkable, although it may be old-fashioned. He has made clear that he has never made inappropriate advances or inappropriately touched anyone.”

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