Two advocates for stronger laws against sexual harassment joined Capital Tonight to discuss the blockbuster report released on Tuesday by Attorney General Letitia James that concluded Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women. 

Erica Vladimer, a co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group (SHWG) told Capital Tonight that she was not surprised by anything that emerged from the report, or the over 170 witness statements detailed in it.

Vladimer was an aide to former state Sen. Jeff Klein in 2015 when she said he forcibly kissed her outside an Albany bar — a charge Klein denies. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has been looking into Vladimer’s allegation since 2018. 

When asked what needs to happen to change Albany’s infamously toxic working environment, she pointed to the slate of legislation supported by the Sexual Harassment Working Group, but which didn’t pass in the last legislative session.

Sexual harassment and employment law attorney Sarah Burger, of Burger & Associates, helped draft some of the language used in sexual harassment laws that lawmakers did pass back in 2019.

Burger explained to Capital Tonight that those laws lowered the threshold for what may be defined as sexual harassment in New York state law, and that the governor’s actions appear to rise, at the very least, to the new standard.

Burger also said that, in her opinion, the document provided by the governor’s attorney countering the accusations made by nine of the 11 accusers in the attorney general's report, was not as vigorously reported as the AG’s report, nor does it warrant the same level of legal merit.

Attorney General James’ report detailed the experiences of 11 women who were harassed or inappropriately touched by Governor Cuomo. The report concluded that the governor’s actions violated multiple state and federal laws.