An investigation released Monday found “strong evidence” that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed women and ordered government officials to help him release a book on leadership during the pandemic.
The report also highlights that Andrew Cuomo’s team “substantially revised” the NYS Department of Health’s report on COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, excluding statistics that could tarnish his reputation as a leader during the pandemic.
The report’s findings, produced by a law firm hired by the state legislature’s judiciary committee, were broadly expected, in particular the findings on sexual harassment, which mirrored allegations released over the summer by an investigation by the New York attorney general, AP reported.
But the investigation revealed new data, such as a $ 5.2 million private deal. [cerca de 4,6 milhões de euros] Andrew Cuomo has written The American Crisis: Lessons From A Pandemic Leadership. [Crise Americana: Lições sobre liderança durante a pandemia, em português]…
The former governor of New York has ensured that no state resources will be used to write the book, but investigators from the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell pointed to evidence that Andrew Cuomo’s team spent a lot of time on the project.
“A senior government official explained that tasks related to books are considered a priority and this work was not voluntary,” the investigation report said.
“Another senior employee sent a text message to his colleague that work on the book was undermining his ability to work on covid-19 issues,” it says.
Team members told the researchers that they were assigned tasks for the book during office hours, such as printing, delivering documents, or attending meetings with agents or editors.
The report also highlights that a senior government official sent and received 1,000 emails about the book, and while he did not mention the employee’s identity, the details allowed him to identify her as a former adviser to former governor Melissa DeRos.
Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, resigned in August to avoid an impeachment process.
Cuomo denied sexual harassment and inappropriate touching of any woman.
The former governor is facing a separate criminal case in which he is accused of touching the chest of a former assistant Brittany Komisso after being summoned to her official residence on December 7, 2020.
The report, released Monday, said it analyzed travel, phone calls and text messages that confirmed the whereabouts of the former aide on the day of the attack.
“We have concluded that there is overwhelming evidence that the former governor was involved in sexual harassment,” it says.
The investigation further examined allegations that Cuomo’s team asked the state health department to remove the link to 10,000 covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents, instead pointing to 6,500 deaths, not counting deaths among victims who contracted the virus in nursing homes. but died after death. transferred to hospitals.
“Witnesses noted that the same senior official who served as the cornerstone of the book made the decision to include only domestic deaths in the data,” the report said.
Former Governor’s spokesman Richard Azzopardi and his lawyer Rita Glavin have not yet reacted to the report’s findings.
Putin has repeatedly consulted with Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the invasion, Europa Press told Ukraine’s chief intelligence director Vadim Skibitsky.
According to Skibitsky, it was the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is responsible for counterintelligence and espionage work, that put pressure on Gerasimov and other military agencies to agree to launch an offensive. .
However, according to the Ukrainian intelligence services, the FSB considered that by the end of February sufficient preparations had already been made to guarantee the success of the Russian Armed Forces in a lightning invasion.
However, according to Kyiv, the Russian General Staff provided the Russian troops with supplies and ammunition for only three days, hoping that the offensive would be swift and immediately successful.
The head of Ukrainian intelligence also emphasized the cooperation of local residents, who always provided the Ukrainian authorities with up-to-date information about the Russian army, such as the number of soldiers or the exact location of troops.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
A Stockholm court on Monday sentenced a former Swedish intelligence officer to life in prison for spying for Russia, and his brother to at least 12 years in prison. In what is considered one of the most serious cases in Swedish counterintelligence history, much of the trial took place behind closed doors in the name of national security.
According to the prosecution, it was Russian military intelligence, the GRU, who took advantage of the information provided by the two brothers between 2011 and their arrest at the end of 2021.
Peyman Kia, 42, has held many senior positions in the Swedish security apparatus, including the army and his country’s intelligence services (Säpo). His younger brother, Payam, 35, is accused of “participating in the planning” of the plot and of “managing contacts with Russia and the GRU, including passing on information and receiving financial rewards.”
Both men deny the charges, and their lawyers have demanded an acquittal on charges of “aggravated espionage,” according to the Swedish news agency TT.
The trial coincides with another case of alleged Russian espionage, with the arrest of the Russian-born couple in late November in a suburb of Stockholm by a police team arriving at dawn in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Research website Bellingcat identified them as Sergei Skvortsov and Elena Kulkova. The couple allegedly acted as sleeper agents for Moscow, having moved to Sweden in the late 1990s.
According to Swedish press reports, the couple ran companies specializing in the import and export of electronic components and industrial technology.
The man was again detained at the end of November for “illegal intelligence activities.” His partner, suspected of being an accomplice, has been released but remains under investigation.
According to Swedish authorities, the arrests are not related to the trial of the Kia brothers.
“They can strengthen their positions. We understand that this can happen. At the same time, we do not rule out that they will announce a general mobilization,” Danilov said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.
Danilov believed that this mobilization would also be convened “to exterminate as many as possible” of Russian citizens, so that “they would no longer have any problems on their territory.”
In this sense, Danilov also reminded that Russia has not given up on securing control over Kyiv or the idea of the complete “destruction” of Ukraine. “We have to be ready for anything,” he said.
“I want everyone to understand that [os russos] they have not given up on the idea of destroying our nation. If they don’t have Kyiv in their hands, they won’t have anything in their hands, we must understand this,” continued Danilov, who also did not rule out that a new Russian offensive would come from “Belarus and other territories.” .
As such, Danilov praised the decision of many of its residents who chose to stay in the Ukrainian capital when the war broke out in order to defend the city.
“They expected that there would be panic, that people would run, that there would be nothing to protect Kyiv,” he added, referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
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