Disgraced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s former top aide is denying a report that she was seen making out with the governor. She is accusing a New York State trooper who made the claim of extortion.
“As a young woman who has worked at the highest levels of government and politics, I’m used to people making up and spreading rumors about me,” former Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa, 39, tweeted on Friday. “However, it is absolutely beyond the pale for this trooper, who by her own admission I barely knew – who has already attempted to extort me for money – to make these accusations based on false rumors and for them to be printed in a newspaper. Not only is this ludicrous, it’s hurtful, and potentially actionable.”
The New York Post reported on Friday that a state police bodyguard testified that she witnessed Cuomo and DeRosa, who has been married for the past five years, “making out on the sidewalk like high schoolers.”
“Roughly 1 month ago, trooper #1’s lawyer emailed to say she would sue me if I didn’t pay her off privately — this despite the fact that she said we only ever said ‘hi’ and ‘goodbye’ I refused to pay her,” DeRosa added. “Now, this.”
DeRosa is not specifically named in the testimony from the state trooper, who is one of the several women who accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct against her, but three sources told the Post that an individual known as “Senior Staffer #1” in the testimony is her.
The trooper stated to authorities that she did not witness the pair making out but that she overheard about it from others and said, “I think everyone kind of like assumes or thinks that there’s something going on between them.”
The New York Post reported in October that DeRosa and her husband were getting divorced with a source telling the paper, “They simply grew apart, and they have been living apart for a year.”
Cuomo, who has been single since 2019, was asked in a July interview if he ever kissed “Senior Staffer #1” on the lips and he said that he didn’t “recall” doing that but it “may have” happened.
How can someone claim to not remember kissing someone else?
“Am I Senior Staffer #1? I have no idea — you’d have to ask the AG’s office, but the things this person says is flat-out false,” DeRosa said.
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said, “The fact that Tish James included these completely false bottom-of-the-barrel rumors in her selectively released, partially redacted transcripts says more about her character and motivations than anything else.”
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Cuomo resigned from his post as governor in August amid a sexual harassment probe following accusations brought by 11 women who worked for him.
The New York Post reported this week that Cuomo is interested in running for attorney general of New York which is a post he held from 2007 to 2010.
