Behind Effort to Smear Cuomo Accusers: His Sister

When then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was hit with allegations of sexual impropriety, brother Chris lost his anchor job at CNN because of his efforts to help Andrew survive the controversy. Now the New York Times is out with a lengthy account detailing how another sibling worked on behalf of Andrew. His sister Madeline is described as the "secret hand" guiding a grassroots group called We Decide New York to launch smear attacks against the governor's accusers. The group, nearly all of whose members are women, initially sprang up to support the governor's handling of the pandemic. But Madeline soon got involved. "Starting just weeks after the group was formed, she steered its volunteer activists—many in their 50s, 60s, and 70s—to prop up her brother and hound his accusers ever more aggressively," writes Nicholas Fandos.

In one text, she encourages the group to repost photos from one accuser's social media account "in her sex kitten straddle," adding, "No respectable woman would EVER pose like that," along with "Bimbo photos" and "Really despicable." That's just one example of many. While the governor himself doesn't appear to have directly communicated with the group, Madeline at one point wrote to group leaders, "I just hung up w A again and he wants you both to know how much he appreciates ALL your hard work." A few days later, she added, "He's seeing everything." In a statement, Madeline tells the Times: "I acted on my own with the women of WDNY, without his involvement in any way," she said, adding that her focus was on "protecting my family." Read the full story, which is based on more than 4,000 text messages obtained by the Times. (Or check out other Longform stories.)