Charlotte Bennett, the
second woman to come forward and accuse New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, told CBS News in an interview set to air Thursday evening that the governor “groomed her” for sex. Her lawyer says the entire scandal “derailed her career.”
Bennett, 25, who served as an aide to Cuomo, has repeatedly said that the governor sexually harassed her last spring.
“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Bennett
told the New York Times. “And was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.”
She also has said that Cuomo asked her inappropriate questions about her sex life during her time working for him.
Now Bennett is taking her claims a step further, revealing more details in the forthcoming CBS News interview.
CBS’ Norah O’Donnell explained Thursday morning what Bennett is now revealing.
Bennett told O’Donnell that Gov. Cuomo “groomed her,” the reporter said, and that he asked her “shocking questions.”
“It is a powerful interview,” O’Donnell said. “For the first time, you are going to hear her describe in her own words exactly what Gov. Cuomo said to her; the shocking questions that he asked her about her sex life — he asked her about whether she had sex with older men; how he told her that he was lonely.”
O’Donnell added that this interview “is the most detailed account we have heard to date from one of his accusers.”
Bennett “talks about how she believes that Gov. Cuomo groomed her” and “about the culture in the Cuomo administration,” O’Donnell revealed.
The ex-aide who worked for Cuomo for “several years,” O’Donnell said, “has spoken with other women who worked for Gov. Cuomo who had similar experiences.”
According to O’Donnell, Bennett reported the behavior to Cuomo’s chief of staff and to his special council, and the fallout, Bennett’s lawyer, Debra Katz, said, destroyed Bennett’s professional future.
“It derailed her career,” Katz
told CBS News.
Cuomo apologizes, refuses to resign in first public appearance since harassment allegations
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