Andrew Cuomo’s team tried ‘Italian guilt’ when PR agent Maggie Moran turned down his offer to restore his image

After – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s $100,000 a month offer failed to convince PR director Maggie Moran to handle crisis communications when sexual harassment allegations surfaced last year, the disgraced Pol’s office tried “the sin of the Italians” as a ploy.

It also doesn’t work.

Revelation is included in a transcript of a deposition July 2021 in which Moran, an ally of Cuomo who served as his 2018 re-election campaign manager, answered questions from attorneys with the then New York Attorney General’s Office is investigating allegations of Cuomo’s misconduct. New York Attorney General Letitia James released the 232-page document on Thursday as part of the final batch of official documents related to the investigation.

Moran, who was then a managing partner at the prestigious PR agency Kivvit, testified during the deposition that “Cuomo world” had asked her and Kivvit for help to enhance its rapidly declining image. of the governor. While Cuomo is fighting sexual harassment allegations, he is simultaneously being investigated by state authorities for allegations of low count of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes in New York up to 50 percent.

“Nursing home [issue], for me, was another deal,” Moran said in his testimony. “You know, [Cuomo aide] Melissa [DeRosa] say a word out of context, they can divulge the numbers, nobody has a notebook during a pandemic, to me that feels like something worth working on. “

But the harassment allegations, Moran continued, “I really don’t want any part of it.” She said she decided not to help with the investigation at the nursing home “once the charges started.”

“The allegations, apparently, are a scandal that overwhelms nursing homes, so now they’re clearly all about the allegations,” Moran said, according to the transcript. “So I gave him a recommendation for someone he might want to hire, because it’s not us.”

The potential mission is “not like a space I want to be in, not with the company’s values, not with who I am,” Moran testified, though she added that she “did not have a high opinion of [Cuomo accuser] Lindsey Boylan. ”

Boylan, a former assistant to Cuomo, resigned in 2018 after accusing the governor harassed her for years, allegedly kissing her on the lips after a meeting at his office, making touching her “back, hands and feet” and asking her to play striptease. Boylan, 37, who earlier this year unsuccessfully ran for president of Manhattan Borough, said in a blog post that she comes to work “nauseous every day” following the kissing incident. Cuomo has steadfastly denied the allegations that eventually include accounts from other women, such as a former executive assistant who accused him of groping her breasts in 2020.

“As a woman involved in politics for nearly 25 years, I lack any empathy for women who put themselves in positions that would reflect badly on all women in politics,” Moran said. said in his statement. “It’s tough enough as it is.”

However, Moran said, “[E]If it’s Lindsey Boylan, I won’t stand up for men in these cases until everyone knows the truth. “

There was no viable way to separate the two jobs and she couldn’t see the way forward, Moran testified, saying “everything was a fight for Andrew Cuomo.” And when a reporter “chases after you, they chase you. So it doesn’t work”.

When Moran was out, Cuomo’s office began to lean on two of Moran’s employees and ask them to do the work, she said.

“They are trying to sin the Italians [sic] on them doing it, and that kind of thing, just go, all nine yards,” she testified. “None of them want to do it, and they shouldn’t do it either.”

When asked to explain “Italian guilt,” Moran – who is half-Italian – said, “If they want you to do something, they’ll try anything. They will bribe you with food. Don’t use the word bribe in the wrong way. They will seduce you, they will pat you, they will try to twist your arm. They will do everything they can under the sun, including [sic] it’s me, come on, help, please help, now is the time. If you are family, you will help. Guilty. ”

ONE 204 page archive of exhibitions released with transcripts showing Moran continuing to advise Cuomo on the matter in some capacity. In a series of text messages, she can be seen communicating with a Kivvit-inside Cuomo employee about messaging regarding harassment allegations and how the press is being handled.

New York State Attorney General’s Office

Moran, who now working in the cannabis industry, did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Cuomo resigned in November after James’ reports that he had sexually harassed at least 11 current and former female employees and engaged in “patterns of inappropriate behavior” were caught up in the plate. carpet in a “hostile” and “unsafe” work environment.