Andrew Cuomo is taking his revenge tour on the offensive — with the former Empire State governor moving to sue an ex-staffer who accused him of sexual harassment.
Cuomo, 67, filed a notice Thursday that he intends to launch a lawsuit accusing former aide Charlotte Bennett of defaming him when she alleged he subjected her to invasive questions about her personal life and sexual relationships.
The notice of claim, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
It comes less than two weeks after Bennett dropped her federal harassment charges against Cuomo — just days before she was due to give a marathon deposition.
“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,” Cuomo’s lawyers wrote in the filing.
Cuomo’s attorneys have yet to file a formal legal complaint laying out his exact charges against Bennett, but the six-page summons argues that evidence uncovered amid her federal lawsuit show she conjured up the harassment claims.
The filing also points to a statement Bennett’s attorney, Debra Katz, made earlier this month when the federal lawsuit was dropped, in which she continued to claim Cuomo sexually harassed her client.
“The December 9 Defamatory Statement—which was intended to be and was widely disseminated and which was made in the wake of Bennett and her agents’ numerous prior public accusations against Governor Cuomo—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 lawyers wrote.
Bennett’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The move is the latest in a years-long, multi-million dollar legal slog Cuomo has engaged in to battle three women who have sued him over claims related to sexual harassment – Bennett, Brittany Commisso, and an anonymous state trooper assigned to his protective detail referred to in court papers as Trooper One.
Much of Cuomo’s defense has been footed by taxpayers under a state law that lets former pols get reimbursed by the state to use campaign cash to defend themselves for accusations stemming from their work in office.
New Yorkers have so far coughed up around $16 million to foot Cuomo and his aides’ legal bills.
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Cuomo’s lawyers have also hit back at criticisms of his taxpayer-funded fight — to the point of even trying to get a gag order to prevent Bennett’s lawyers from talking about the topic.
“The defamation suit filed today from plaintiff Cuomo is riddled with errors in well-recorded fact, from things as basic as when Charlotte Bennett notified her superiors of Cuomo’s illegal conduct, to why they then transferred her to another job so Cuomo couldn’t continue to have contact with her,” Erica Vladimer, co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group told The Post.
“The Office of the Attorney General’s independent, thorough report contains depositions under oath from Ms. Bennett and Cuomo’s former staff, as well as the relevant records, on these matters and more. A separate investigation by the Department of Justice found that Cuomo’s staff also violated federal laws,” Vladimer continued.
Bennett, meanwhile, is also suing the governor’s office in state court directly over her sexual harassment and retaliation charges.
That case is still ongoing and Cuomo’s allies are begging Gov. Kathy Hochul not to agree to a settlement with Bennett.
Cuomo, who resigned in August 2021 in the face of sexual harassment claims, has denied any wrongdoing.
