Andrew Cuomo’s Attorney Previously Hired Firm To Dig Up Dirt On One Of Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers
An attorney hired by disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) previously worked to defend media mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. While representing Weinstein, this attorney hired a company to dig up dirt on one of the producer’s accusers.
The attorney, Elkan Abramowitz, was hired by Cuomo’s office in March to represent the governor and his top aides while the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) considered an inquiry into the Cuomo administration’s nursing home policy in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOJ ultimately dropped its inquiry into Cuomo’s policy, as well as two other Democrat governors’ nursing home policies.
Even though the DOJ decided not to investigate Cuomo further, Abramowitz is still representing the governor’s office. In an email to The Daily Wire, Abramowitz said that his firm represents the executive office in “connection with ongoing inquiries concerning nursing homes, the Governor’s book deal, priority testing and the Mario Cuomo Bridge.”
The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow published an article on August 10 naming Abramowitz as “an attorney for Cuomo.” Abramowitz was quoted regarding a 2014 phone call Cuomo made to Obama White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, reportedly “ranting and raving” about then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara’s investigation into Cuomo’s dismantling of a commission looking into New York government corruption. Abramowitz told Farrow that Cuomo acknowledged making contact with the White House regarding Bharara but didn’t offer details.
“If Bharara thought this was obstruction of justice, he would have said so at the time,” Abramowitz told Farrow.
His connection to Cuomo is significant because of the attorney’s history of trying to smear accusers. It’s one thing to refute an accuser’s story, but Abramowitz went further than that while representing Weinstein. As the Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross reported last week, Abramowitz hired the firm K2 Intelligence “to dig up dirt on the sexual history of Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, an Italian model who accused Weinstein of raping her in 2015.”
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