Cuomo Accusers Celebrate ‘Poetic Justice' Of His Primary Defeat

By Rosalind Adams, The City

June 25, 2025, 5:20 p.m.

Ana Liss had already put her kids to bed and was making a batch of banana bread on Tuesday night when her phone pinged with a text from one of her closest friends.

“I’m so happy for you, this is redemption,” the message said.

Liss, a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and one of the women who testified to the attorney general’s office as part of its sexual harassment investigation, swiped over to her social media feed to see a stream of news about Zohran Mamdani cinching the democratic primary for mayor over her former boss. She poured herself a glass of wine as she scanned the news.

“I said a prayer of gratitude because I just felt like it was poetic justice,” Liss said in an interview with THE CITY.

Before Cuomo’s stunning loss on Tuesday, the former governor held a commanding lead in the polls — even before launching his campaign for mayor back in March. Though four years had passed since Cuomo resigned from the state’s top political post, he has remained entangled in a web of litigation related to the same sexual harassment claims that led to his downfall.

Earlier this month, THE CITY revealed how Cuomo’s state-funded defense has been used to attack each of his accusers in court — even those who never filed any claim against him at all. His lawyers have repeatedly called the women liars and co-conspirators while ensnaring them in invasive requests for personal information that have led to, in some instances, costly legal bills.

Cuomo has repeatedly denied the accusations. Earlier this month, his spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told THE CITY: “The governor has consistently said he never harassed anybody and the attorney general’s report was pure politics.”

Early on in the mayoral race, Cuomo’s record on sexual harassment seemed to have little effect on the momentum of his campaign as he racked up endorsements from local unions and party leaders. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who had called for his resignation in 2021, told NY1 in March that “this is a country that believes in second chances” and said it was up to voters to decide.

Much of the litigation has centered on one case based on the claims of an anonymous state trooper who Cuomo personally requested transfer to his security detail. His other accusers have stated in court records that they have no knowledge of her claims yet have spent years entangled in the litigation. In court, Cuomo’s lawyers sought years of private phone records, medical records and testimony from old bosses and romantic partners from the women who have made accusations against him.

Liss, who now lives in Rochester and did not cast a vote in the primary election, was among the women who provided testimony to state officials but never filed a lawsuit against Cuomo. She considered her allegations mild but believed in speaking up, she said. After she was subpoenaed by Cuomo’s team for documents and testimony in 2023, she agreed to a deposition with no counsel present — it would have been too costly on top of daycare expenses and taking a day off of work.

“I was naive,” said Liss. She described the eight-hour deposition as “embarrassing and humiliating.” When she was finished, Liss soon noticed that parts of her testimony had already leaked online to pro-Cuomo accounts.

Liss said that around her, colleagues, friends and family appeared to question her decision to speak out against a powerful man. She worried that she would lose her job and faced a legal bill of $30,000 in a case that had nothing to do with her. “I’ve lived with a lot of shame in the years that have passed since I came forward,” said Liss.

The extensive document and subpoena requests to Liss and others are part of why Cuomo’s legal battle has grown so costly. Funded by a state law that covers litigation expenses for public employees facing job-related suits, Cuomo had racked up $19.4 million in fees defending himself against just three cases by late May.

Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) and Assemblymember Grace Lee (D-Manhattan) introduced legislation earlier this year to end unlimited taxpayer-funded legal fees for elected officials, specifically citing Cuomo’s slew of litigation. The bill did not make it out of committee. After Mamdani’s victory last night, Krueger told THE CITY that the primary results offered a potential new path forward for Cuomo’s victims, too.

“Among the many lessons from last night’s results is a repudiation of the idea that powerful men deserve special protection from the consequences of their actions,” Krueger said in a statement.

“I suspect the people don’t want to keep shelling out millions of their tax dollars for an army of lawyers to continue making life miserable for the women he harassed,” she said, adding that she’s hopeful the legislation will see movement in the next session.

Erica Vladimer, the co-director of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, an advocacy organization that has pushed for limits on the costs of Cuomo’s suits, also said that the primary results will shift the political dynamics that supported Cuomo’s electoral bid. Vladimer believes that many of the people who either endorsed him or brushed aside the harassment claims had been making a political calculation that he was likely to hold office again as the former governor led the polls for months.

“Those politics are gone now. Cuomo is not going to be mayor,” said Vladimer. “There was just so much political tiptoeing because people are so afraid of this man’s propensity for retribution.”

In the final weeks of the campaign, the rest of the field of candidates began to press Cuomo more on the sexual harassment claims. In the second debate on June 12, co-sponsored by THE CITY, Mamdani pointedly told Cuomo: “I have never hounded the 13 women who credibly accused me of sexual harassment. I have never sued for their gynecological records.”

Brad Lander, who cross-endorsed Mamdani, told Cuomo in the same debate: “Everybody here knows that you sexually harassed women, that you created a toxic work environment.”

Down in New Orleans on Tuesday night, Karen Hinton set up a projector in her living room to watch the election results. Hinton worked for Cuomo back in the 1990s when he was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration. She wrote in a 2021 memoir covering her political career about an occasion in which Cuomo embraced her and she felt him get aroused. Hinton, too, was pressed by Cuomo’s legal team for extensive records about her personal life, in a civil case about a state trooper that she knew nothing about.

While she no longer lives in New York City, Hinton said she couldn’t help but watch the primary race closely. She grew more enchanted with Mamdani’s campaign message of affordability, she said, keenly aware of New York’s rising living costs since three daughters live in the city. In the final days of the campaign, Hinton said she was amused when Bill Clinton endorsed Cuomo. “Let’s just get all the sexual harassers to endorse him,” she quipped. “I was blown away by that.”

As the results rolled in, she grew more optimistic about the outcome. When Cuomo rushed the stage to begin his remarks just before 11 p.m., Hinton turned to her husband: “I could just tell from what he was saying, he’s about to concede,” she said.

But Cuomo’s speech offered a larger conclusion for Hinton outside of just the mayoral race. “There are no more wars for him to fight. It’s over,” she said. “The book is closed on the Cuomo dynasty.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.