Brittany Commisso Biography – Wiki
Brittany Commisso is the woman identified as “Executive Assistant # 1” in the New York Attorney General’s investigation of Governor Andrew Cuomo. Commisso has accused Cuomo of groping her. Commisso has worked for Cuomo since 2017. Her estranged husband and her family are involved in Democratic politics in the Albany area.
Brittany Damino Commisso has worked in various roles in state and local government, according to her now-deleted LinkedIn profile. She graduated from SUNY Albany with a BA in political science and government.
From 2013 to 2017, Commisso worked as a confidential secretary at the Albany County Law Department, according to her LinkedIn profile. She later served as a confidential secretary in the Albany County Alternate Public Defender’s office from May 2017 to November 2017. She began working in the governor’s office as an executive assistant in December 2017.
According to an April 2021 interview with the Albany Times-Union, Commisso worked for a senior official at a state agency during the beginning of his time in the governor’s office, then returned to work closer to Cuomo in June 2019 as an assistant. executive of one. of the main advisers of him.
She told the newspaper that when she started working in the governor’s office, a woman who also worked on her staff told her, “Oh, they are going to rob you.” I just smiled. She said, ‘Wait and see, and the governor will rob you,’ ”the woman said. “That was my first day, and that was the first time I said to myself, ‘I know that was not normal.’ You hear stories about what happens on Capitol Hill. … I know what she meant by that. ”Commisso told the newspaper that in late 2019, she began being called in to work directly with Cuomo more often.
Age
Brittany Commisso is 32-years-old.
Parents
Commisso’s father, Frank Commisso Sr., also a Democrat, has been a member of the Albany County Legislature since 1983. Neither the older nor the younger Frank Commisso has spoken publicly about the allegations made by Brittany Commisso.
In the attorney general’s report, investigators wrote that Brittany Commisso “repeatedly testified that she felt she had to tolerate the governor’s physical advances and suggestive comments because she feared repercussions if she did not.” The report added that Commisso, “testified that she needed the income (including the overtime pay she received for working weekends), particularly as she was going through a divorce and was focused on not risking losing her job.”.
Married To Her Husband
Brittany Commisso has been married to Frank Commisso Jr. since 2016. They are currently going through a contested divorce, according to New York State records. They have a young daughter together.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in #Albany! A special thank you to my wife Brittany who dedicates herself to our young daughter Gianna pic.twitter.com/TpwgGqz5Yo
— Frank Commisso (@FrankCommisso15) May 14, 2017
Commisso’s estranged husband ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Albany in 2017 as a Democrat. Her campaign Twitter profile at the time shows her next to her on the election campaign and on election night.
Brittany Commisso Accused
Cuomo is accused in the report of engaging in a “pattern of inappropriate conduct” with Commisso since late 2019, according to the attorney general’s report. According to the report, the pattern included “close and intimate hugs”, “kisses on the cheeks, forehead and at least one kiss on the lips”, “touching and grabbing” her butt during hugging and while taking a selfie, ” Comments and jokes from the governor “about Commisso’s” personal life and relationships, including calling her and someone else. ” she assisted ‘mixed breasts’, asking several times if she had cheated or would cheat on her husband and asking him to help her find a girlfriend. ”
CBS THIS MORNING EXCLUSIVE: Aide who accused Cuomo of groping speaks publicly for first time, alleging “when he went to go kiss me on the cheek, he quickly turns his head & he kissed me on the lips.” Cuomo denies the claim. More Monday at 7a, only on CBS. https://t.co/NEmtgY7c1Q pic.twitter.com/aQzc2L8AUe
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 8, 2021
The report reads: “These offensive interactions, among others, culminated in an incident at the Executive Mansion in November 2020 when the Governor, during another close hug with Executive Assistant # 1, reached under her blouse and grabbed her chest. . For more than three months, Executive Assistant # 1 kept this groping incident to herself and planned to take it ‘to the rave’, but felt excited (in a way that was visible to her colleagues in the executive camera) as she watched. to the governor. she affirms, in a press conference on March 3, 2021, that. he had never ‘touched anyone inappropriately’. She then confided in some of her colleagues, who in turn reported her allegations to the senior staff of the executive chamber. ”
Cuomo’s attorney, Rita Glavin, responded to the allegations made in the Commisso report during a press conference on August 6, saying, “What she has alleged is perhaps the most significant accusation made against the governor. … In essence, she has accused Governor Cuomo of sexual assault. The governor has repeatedly denied that that happened and frankly when she first raised this in early March, she was stunned. ”
Glavin said: “I did what any researcher would do, I reconstructed the events of that day (November 16, 2020). My team and I reviewed the emails for that day. All the check-in and check-out records and the story of this woman that is stated as fact in the report is false. The documentary evidence does not support what she said. And what worries me is that the two investigators didn’t show him that evidence. They ignored it. ”A footnote in the report notes that Commisso did not remember the exact date of the incident, but said it was around November 16, 2020.
Criminal Complaint Against Cuomo
Commisso filed a criminal complaint with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office says after the attorney general’s report was released. During his interview with CBS News and Albany Times-Union, Commisso said: “It was the right thing to do. The governor must be held accountable. … What he did to me was a crime. He broke the law. ”
Commisso added: “I did not say anything in all this time. People do not understand that this is the governor of the state of New York. There are soldiers who are outside the mansion and there is personnel from the mansion. Those soldiers who are there, are not there to protect me. They are there to protect him. I felt like I had done something to insult him, especially insult him in his own home, he wasn’t going to be the one to get fired or in trouble. It was going to be me. And I felt like I was saying something I know, who would believe me? ”
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple told a news conference that the allegations made against Cuomo by Commisso could lead to a misdemeanor arrest. He told reporters on August 7: “I cannot get into the nature of his specific allegations, at this time we are obviously in the initial stages of this investigation. We have a lot to do research, we have a lot of interviews to do. ”Apple said he would include a lengthy interview with Commisso.
Apple added: “I had a victim come forward, which had to be the hardest thing he has ever done in his life and bring a criminal misconduct charge against the governor.”
The attorney general’s office issued a statement after Apple’s press conference saying, “We will cooperate fully with the Albany Sheriff and deliver all evidence related to this whistleblower. Similarly, we will cooperate with all law enforcement agencies. , as appropriate “.
Cuomo and his attorneys have denied Commisso’s allegations. His lawyer, Glavin, told a news conference on August 6: “He is 63 years old. He has spent 40 years in public life and for him, suddenly, being accused of a sexual assault on an executive assistant that he does not really know, does not review “.
Commisso’s Attorney
Commisso, 32, spoke publicly for the first time in an interview with CBS This Morning and the Albany Times-Union that will air on Monday, August 9, 2021. His interview with the news program and the newspaper comes almost a week. after Attorney General Letitia James released the report on allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment against Cuomo, a Democrat who has been governor of New York since 2011. The report was released on Tuesday, August 3, 2021. Commisso previously gave an anonymous interview to the Times-Union in April 2021. He first filed his complaint with the attorney general’s office in March 2021.
The report from the attorney general’s office stated that the allegations made by Commisso and 10 other women were credible and substantiated. The investigation was led by employment law attorney Anne Clark and former federal prosecutor Joon Kim. James appointed Clark and Kim to lead an independent investigation after Cuomo commissioned James’s office to investigate the allegations against him.
Cuomo has denied touching women inappropriately but has apologized if his behavior was “misinterpreted,” while his attorneys have questioned the fairness and fairness of the attorney general’s investigation. The New York State Assembly will decide whether to impeach Cuomo. He also faces a criminal investigation by the Albany County Sheriff’s Office in connection with the Commisso allegations, while prosecutors in Westchester, Nassau, and Manhattan counties have also opened criminal investigations.
During her interview with the Albany Times-Union in April 2021, which was published without naming her, Commisso spoke about the incident when she said she. she was groped, “I was so confused and so taken aback by that. … he never said anything, which was strange. Right now, I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to do. Now the hives are coming out. I’m, like, cursing in my mind. I remember I went out and he came back to his office. … I remember walking down the stairs and getting escorted into my car, I sat there for a second and said, ‘Okay, now I have to go back to the Capitol, go back to my desk and do my job and pretend that, like That didn’t just happen. ‘
Commisso added: “I had no choice. I remember (thinking): ‘You have to recover … even if you have to sit here for a couple of minutes to do that.” If I tell someone, I’m done. accounts?
Commisso’s attorney, Brian Premo, told the Times-Union in July 2021 that his client would be willing to take a lie detector test. Premo asked if Cuomo would also take a polygraph exam. Premo told the newspaper, “the day we met … that he would take a polygraph test, without hesitation.”
Commisso has continued to work on Capitol Hill, according to the Times-Union, which wrote in April 2021:
In the backdrop of the dual investigations and the political theater, the young woman at the center of the most serious allegations has soldiered on, reporting to her job at the Capitol where she has endured an occasional ‘dirty look’ and fewer work assignments. She was already thin, but has lost significant weight, is emotionally fragile, and — as the mother of a young child — remains concerned about job security.
Video Statement
After Cuomo and his attorneys responded to the report in a video statement and at a press conference, James and the attorney general’s office released a statement on August 6 saying, “After several women made allegations that the governor Cuomo sexually harassed them, the governor himself requested that Attorney General James oversee an independent investigation. The selected independent investigators are widely respected professionals, recognized for their legal and investigative capabilities. Attacking this investigation and attempting to undermine and politicize this process detracts from the courage shown by these women. ”
The statement added: “There will be an ongoing production of interview transcripts that will be made available to the State Assembly, which will be edited as needed. There are 11 women whose accounts have been corroborated by a mountain of evidence. Any suggestion that attempts to undermine the credibility of these women or this research are regrettable.
