Ex-state operations director Howard Glaser indicated that Cuomo, during a phone call in June, had relayed the threat directed at his wife Karen Hinton – also a former aide who has accused Cuomo of harassing her some 20 years ago, per the papers filed in Brooklyn federal court.
“Mr. Cuomo stated, in sum and substance, that `if she goes there [referring to sexual harassment claims against defendant Cuomo], there’s stuff on her that will come out They have material on Karen that’s not good for her, the kind of thing she wouldn’t want her children to see,’” Hinton’s lawyer, Carrie Cohen, wrote in the Sept. 22 filing.
Cuomo’s lawyers subpoenaed Hinton – who worked with him when he was secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development – for extensive documents as he seeks to defend himself in a federal lawsuit in which a female state trooper claims he groped her.
“This Court should not permit defendant Cuomo to continue his campaign of threats, abuse, and harassment through discovery in this litigation,” Cohen wrote in the filing.
“Ms. Hinton will not stand idly by and allow defendant Cuomo to use this Court and the litigation process to continue his longstanding and targeted abusive campaign to attempt to silence women who have come forward about defendant Cuomo’s sexual harassment of them and his targeted smear campaign against and harassment of her,” she continued.
Hinton has publicly supported other women who have accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct – claims which led him to resign in August 2021 under threat of impeachment. He has denied wrongdoing.
Asked about the explosive new claims, Glaser and Hinton referred The Post to Cohen.
“Andrew Cuomo’s abuse of the litigation process by essentially weaponizing the use of third-party subpoenas to further his vicious campaign against women who have stated that he sexually harassed them and those that have supported them should not be tolerated,” the attorney said Sunday.
Cuomo, through a spokesman, countered that it was Hinton who was threatening to unleash dirt on the ex-governor during the court proceedings.
“It was Ms. Hinton, through her lawyer, who threatened to push unspecified damaging information about the governor into the public if the subpoena issued to her was pursued,” said Cuomo’s rep, Rich Azzopardi, on Sunday.
“To be clear there were several conversations with Mr. Glaser because he was furious about the subpoena issued against his wife. He wanted it dropped, but Karen injected herself into this situation when she tried to cash in, wrote a book full of lies about the governor, publicly interacted with multiple individuals Trooper 1 identified as directly relevant to her suit, and even teamed up with them to – unsuccessfully – sell her book. We’ll see them in court,” Azzopardi said.
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