The NY Attorney General's Office released on Monday footage of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s testimony related to the investigation of sexual misconduct allegations made by a dozen women.
The video shows the moment the interrogator asks the ex-governor about the accusation that he allegedly touched the breasts of a staffer at his residence, something that Cuomo has repeatedly denied.
"I would have to lose my mind to do some — such a thing. It would be an act of insanity to touch a woman’s breast and make myself vulnerable to a woman for such an accusation," Cuomo told Attorney Joon Kim.
Cuomo tried to avoid answering whether he was dating a woman mentioned in the testimony. "How do you want to define ‘date?’" Cuomo responded to the question.
He also accused Kim of following the orders of former state attorney Preet Bharara, who Cuomo speculated may have "political aspirations against" him.
"You know that I said that Preet and you were unethical and should not be considered for attorney general," Cuomo said. "Preet Bharara has political aspirations, may have political aspirations against me. His rabbi, your rabbi, Sen. Schumer, called for my resignation."
"You’ve investigated me for six years," Cuomo told Kim, referring to a previous investigation into alleged corruption in 2014 when Kim served as chief counsel.
The recent release was criticized by Cuomo’s representative, who said that it was a typical manipulation of “handpicked witness testimony with selective redactions.”
“She even edited the Governor’s video testimony,” the spokesperson said on Monday. “It is also no coincidence that she decided to release select transcripts minutes before one of her rivals declared for governor."
Earlier in the month, New York Attorney General Letitia James released the first portion of transcripts of interviews, carried out as part of the investigation into Cuomo's sexual harassment allegations. The documents include testimonies of Cuomo and 10 of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct.