The New York attorney general’s report on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s alleged sexual harassment may be only the beginning, as Albany County District Attorney David Soares confirmed that his office has launched a criminal investigation of the Democratic governor.
Soares said following the release of Attorney General Letitia James’ report that his office is looking into the allegations against Cuomo for possible criminal charges.
“I think after today’s presentation … it’s pretty clear that we have an obligation here, and thus we’ve reached out to the attorney general’s office seeking all of the evidence upon which they uncovered and relied upon to author their report,” Soares told NBC’s “Nightly News.”
Fox News reached out to Cuomo’s office for comment but it did not immediately respond. Following the attorney general’s announcement of her investigation’s findings, the governor released a video statement in which he denied wrongdoing.
Soares said the allegations against Cuomo led him and other prosecutors “to believe that criminal activity in fact had indeed taken place” but that his office will carry out its investigation before making any determinations about how to move forward.
WATCH: @LesterHoltNBC speaks to Albany County District Attorney David Soares about his office’s separate investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo. pic.twitter.com/6ZyIzk2fcV
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) August 3, 2021
In order to do that, however, prosecutors need a formal complaint, which requires the cooperation of at least one of the women, Soares said. His office has reached out to some of them, but he said that so far they have been unable to reach any.
“For any victim that’s out there who’s watching this transmission, please reach out to our office and we will conduct our investigation as discretely as possible,” he said.
In total, there were 11 women who came forward with allegations against Cuomo, nine of them past or present state employees. The claims ranged from accusations of inappropriate comments to nonconsensual groping.
Investigators for the attorney general’s probe said the claims were heavily corroborated. They said Tuesday that they spoke to 179 people and reviewed more than 74,000 pages of documents as part of their investigation.
Story cited here.
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