Judge rejects Cuomo’s bid to extend taxpayer-funded lawsuit defense

On Tuesday, a judge rejected former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attempt to prolong a taxpayer-funded legal battle with a woman who accused him of sexual assault, saying the New York City mayoral candidate was trying to litigate in an effort to repair his tarnished reputation.

“Cuomo has not advanced any viable argument for why the taxpayers of this state should continue to foot the bill for his continued use of civil litigation discovery devices to further his efforts to resurrect his public image,” state Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman wrote in a decision posted online Monday.

Hartman’s decision came a month after the state agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Brittany Commisso, an ex-aide who said he sexually harassed and groped her while he was in office.

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An investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James determined that the Democrat had sexually harassed at least 11 women.

Cuomo resigned in disgrace because of the allegations.

Cuomo, a Democrat, asked the judge not to discontinue the lawsuit without releasing text messages he said refute her allegations, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told Fox News Digital. In her ruling, Hartman allowed Commisso to drop the lawsuit and denied Cuomo’s motion on the texts.

“Brittany Commisso’s allegations are false and for four years she hid her contemporaneous text messages that obliterated her claims,” Azzopardi said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “She is desperate to keep the texts from public scrutiny, which is why she suddenly settled her case for a fraction of her initial multimillion dollar demand soon after she was forced to produce them in her meritless lawsuit.”

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“Governor Cuomo will continue to fight for the release of all the evidence because it shows he didn’t sexually harass anyone and further discredits the AG’s political report. Release the evidence and let the public decide,” he added.

Commisso previously testified that Cuomo grabbed her buttocks while they took a selfie in the executive mansion in 2019 and that in 2020 he reached under her blouse and grabbed her breast. She revealed her identity for the first time in a joint interview with “CBS This Morning” and the Albany Times Union, just days after she became the first of Cuomo’s accusers to file a criminal complaint against him.

Cuomo is running for mayor of New York City as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani by more than 12 percentage points.

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.