Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has filed a defamation suit against sex-harass accuser Charlotte Bennett — before Albany could pass a law to hinder such cases targeting alleged victims.
Cuomo’s suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday, said Bennett and her lawyer, Debra Katz, issued damning statements against the former governor-turned-mayoral candidate even after Bennett voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit against him in federal court in December.
“Bennett reposted her agents’ tweet, which has garnered more than 90,000 views, was false and defamatory, and Bennett made it knowing full well that it was false and intending to cause harm to Governor Cuomo,” Cuomo’s suit said.
An investigative report commissioned by state Attorney General Letitia James had found that Cuomo engaged in misconduct against as many as 11 women, including Bennett and a state trooper, but the suit claims the probe was a hit job and none of the accusations have held up in civil or criminal court.
“Despite Bennett’s gamesmanship in withdrawing her federal lawsuit before she was required to admit under oath that she had lied about her interactions with Governor Cuomo, Governor Cuomo fully intends to clear his name and to ensure that Bennett and her agents never again repeat the falsehood that he sexually harassed Bennett,” according to the suit, which was filed by Cuomo lawyers Theresa Trzaskoma and Rita Glavin.
On the same day Cuomo’s lawsuit was filed, it surfaced that the state had settled a suit Bennett slapped against New York claiming it failed to protect her.
The taxpayer-funded settlement was for $450,000 — part of a more than $9 million tab shelled out to defend Cuomo and the state against Bennett’s claims.
Cuomo had previously filed a notice threatening to sue Bennett — and he then followed through.
The suit appeared to be a marked departure from comments he made in February 2021, when he said, “I never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm.
“I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable,” Cuomo said at the time.
“It was unintentional, and I truly and deeply apologize for it. I feel awful about it, and frankly, I’m embarrassed by it, and that’s not easy to say. But that’s the truth.”
Another mayoral candidate, former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, had previously filed a defamation suit against Jean Kim, who worked on his 2001 campaign for public advocate. Stringer claimed she leveled “fake” sexual-abuse allegations against him.
Proposed legislation is currently being championed in Albany that aims to make it more difficult for accused sex harassers to sue their alleged victims for defamation.
The proposed Speak Your Truth Act would require the accused to pay for all the legal expenses of the defendants if they lost their defamation/libel case.
California has approved such a law, and 15 other states are considering it.
The proposed New York measure, sponsored by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) and Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas (D-Queens), is being reviewed in committee.
A separate bill seeks to protect all alleged victims of employment discrimination including harassment from libel or defamation suits after they file internal complaints about the abuse they are experiencing.
That measure is sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon (D-Brooklyn).
“This is a tactic abusers use against their victims time and time again. They’re trying to silence victims,” Gounardes said of such lawsuits.
The senator said Cuomo’s suit against Bennett is “exactly the type of case this bill tries to protect against.
“It happened countless times before Cuomo and will happen countless times after him,” Gounardes said.
His bill passed the state Senate, and action is pending in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
California attorney Victoria Burke spearheaded a campaign for the law’s passage in her home state after she reported being sexually abused in 2019 and was advised not to talk about publicly because of a potential retaliatory defamation suit.
“The legal action is not used to win — it’s used to silence, to intimidate,” Burke said.
Forcing the plaintiffs to pay the “survivors” legal fees will discourage such suits and level the playing field, she said.
Erica Vladimer, co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group established by former state legislative staffers, said such a law against these suits is needed.
“Men are continuing to retaliate against women who are trying to hold them accountable,” Vladimer said. “The legislation would protect workers who deserve a safe workplace.”
Cuomo’s campaign dismissed the bills as trying to discourage people who’ve been falsely smeared of wrongdoing of clearing their name and failing to hold false accusers accountable.
“Every New Yorker — regardless of if you agree with them politically — should have a right to to defend themselves against discredited claims, which is exactly what Ms. Bennett’s statements were, and why she dropped her sham lawsuit against Governor Cuomo days before she was set to be deposed under oath in the face of damning evidence that proved her claims were meritless,” said Cuomo campaign spokesman Richard Azzopardi.
Bennett initially filed her federal lawsuit in September 2022 against Cuomo, his top lieutenant Melissa DeRosa and two other aides — but dropped that case in December just days before she was set to give a sworn deposition about her claims.
Cuomo claimed he was framed.
“I said when it started from the beginning that [the sex lawsuit] was all political, and that’s the way it turned out,” Cuomo, 67, told The Post outside Calvary Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens, on Sunday.
“I was dropped from the suit, so it was up to the state. The state did a settlement, which was basically settling a nuisance suit — sometimes it [costs] more to litigate than to settle. But it was all politics,” he said.
The Stringer campaign declined comment on the legislation.
Bennett’s camp did not respond to a Post request for comment.
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