Cuomo asked former aide to sing ‘Danny Boy’ for him: attorney

A lawyer to a former aide for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D-N.Y.) office said the aide was asked to learn and sing “Danny Boy” by the governor shortly after joining his team.

The Journal News reports that Charlotte Bennett, 25, was given the lyrics to the song in May 2019 and later asked to sing the song in front of Cuomo with top aide Melissa DeRosa observing. When Bennett wouldn’t sing, Cuomo began singing the song himself, according to the young woman’s attorney, Debra Katz.

“Instead of DeRosa saying to the governor, you need to stop this, he continued to press her to sing Danny Boy, which is really humiliating, and when she doesn’t do it, he starts singing ‘Danny Boy’ with this booming voice and [says], ‘Sing with me, sing with me,'” Katz told the USA TODAY Network New York last week.

According to Katz, Bennet relayed the incident to investigators from the New York attorney general’s office.

The Hill has reached out to Cuomo’s office for a response.

News of this incident comes as Cuomo faces sexual misconduct allegations from multiple former aides as well as one current aide.

An investigation into the allegations is currently being carried out by New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) office. James announced in early March that she had tapped former U.S. Attorney Joon Kim and employment discrimination specialist Anne Clark to lead the investigation.

As the Journal News notes, the New York legislature has recently begun looking into a possible Cuomo impeachment probe. The impeachment investigation will be led by the Manhattan law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

Despite calls to resign from the state’s entire congressional delegation, Cuomo has maintained that he will not resign from office.