New York Gov. Cuomo Sexually Harassed Multiple Women, Investigation Finds

In at least one case, the 165-page report said the governor and his staff retaliated against a former adviser after she publicly aired allegations of sexual harassment last year.

“This investigation has revealed conduct that corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government,” Ms. James, who like Mr. Cuomo is a Democrat, said at a news conference.

In a fiery rebuttal, the third-term governor defended his behavior and said he would continue with the work of his office, adding the report mischaracterized personal interactions. “The facts are much different than what has been portrayed,” Mr. Cuomo said.

His stance pushed his fellow New York Democrats closer to impeaching him, the state Assembly leader said, adding that Mr. Cuomo can “no longer remain in office.” An unrelated federal investigation continues.

Ms. James’s report largely confirms previously reported accusations by current and former state employees who said Mr. Cuomo, 63 years old, sexually harassed them or acted inappropriately in the workplace. It also includes several whose accounts hadn’t previously been reported.

Ms. James said the violations of law alleged in the report were civil in nature and that her office wouldn’t pursue a criminal investigation or charges. But she said other agencies could pursue cases.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares said Tuesday his office has an ongoing investigation into the governor’s conduct and that he would make a formal request for all investigative materials related to the attorney general’s report.

In a videotaped statement he released Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo said the report was a biased review. “That is just not who I am, and that’s not who I have ever been,” he said, noting specifically that he “never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances.” At one point, he featured a montage of photos at political events, kissing, hugging and embracing men and women supporters, saying that “on occasion, I do slip and say ‘sweetheart,’ or ‘darling,’ or ‘honey.’”

The political fallout from the report was immediate. Republicans and progressive Democrats reiterated that the governor should step down, but resignation calls spread to Democrats who have been longtime allies—including Mr. Biden and U.S. House Speaker

Nancy Pelosi.

“I think he should resign,” Mr. Biden said at a White House news conference. The president said he hadn’t spoken with Mr. Cuomo on Tuesday.

Governors from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island released a rare joint statement, stating they are “appalled at the findings” and called for Mr. Cuomo to resign.

The alleged harassment by the governor included inappropriate comments and unwanted hugs, kisses and touching that investigators claim was part of a pattern involving state employees and others. In all, the report detailed allegations by 11 women.

In one previously unreported case, a female member of Mr. Cuomo’s state police protective detail, told investigators the governor touched her on the hip and back while she was on duty. At one point Mr. Cuomo asked the trooper why she would want to get married, because “it always ends in divorce, and you lose money, and your sex drive goes down.”

The report also corroborated accounts by Charlotte Bennett, a former aide who said Mr. Cuomo told her he would be open to a relationship with a younger woman.

Lindsey Boylan,

a former economic development adviser, told investigators that Mr. Cuomo kissed her lips without her consent in 2018. The report said state officials released personnel records about Ms. Boylan to journalists as part of an attempt to discredit her.

Possibly the most serious allegation came from a current executive assistant who said Mr. Cuomo reached under her shirt and touched her breast without her consent during a 2020 encounter at the Executive Mansion in Albany. On Tuesday, the governor again denied the encounter occurred.

The governor defended his behavior with the women to investigators as “old fashioned,” according to the report.

“I try to put people at ease, I try to make them smile. I try to connect with them, and I try to show my appreciation and my friendship,” Mr. Cuomo said, in his video message Tuesday. “I now understand that there are generational or cultural perspectives that, frankly, I hadn’t fully appreciated.”

Some officials, including Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, said the Democratic-controlled state Assembly should use the report’s findings to accelerate a continuing impeachment inquiry. Assembly members involved in the impeachment inquiry are scheduled to convene on Monday.

Assembly Speaker

Carl Heastie,

a Bronx Democrat, called the findings “disturbing” and “gut-wrenching.” After a three-hour discussion with Assembly members, Mr. Heastie said Mr. Cuomo had “lost the confidence of the Assembly Democratic majority and that he can no longer remain in office.”

Tuesday’s report was written by two outside investigators,

Joon Kim,

a former federal prosecutor, and Anne Clark, an employment-discrimination attorney. They spoke to 179 people during their five-month investigation.

Witnesses described a hostile workplace that was “rife with fear and intimidation and accompanied by a consistent overlooking of inappropriate flirtations and other sexually suggestive and gender-based comments by the governor,” the report said.

Mr. Cuomo requested Ms. James’s probe in March, after Ms. Boylan and Ms. Bennett made public accusations against him. He rebuffed calls for his resignation by his fellow Democrats—including U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand—and said people should wait for the facts in Tuesday’s report.

During an interview with investigators on July 17, Mr. Cuomo denied inappropriately touching anyone—including the state trooper and executive assistant, the report said. Mr. Cuomo said he did regularly hug the executive assistant, but said she was the “initiator of the hugs” and that he was “more in the reciprocal business,” according to the report.

In recent weeks, the governor and his aides have said they had concerns about the independence of the attorney general’s investigators and said Ms. James could seek the Democratic nomination for governor.

Ms. James hasn’t ruled out a bid for governor. On Monday, her spokeswoman said Mr. Cuomo’s “continued attempts to undermine and politicize this process are dishonest and take away from the courage and bravery displayed by these women.”

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has twice been Mr. Cuomo’s running mate, said the report “documented repulsive and unlawful behavior by the governor towards multiple women” and that the Assembly would determine the next steps.

In addition to the Assembly impeachment inquiry, federal prosecutors based in Brooklyn are investigating the Cuomo administration’s handling of Covid-19 in nursing homes and whether state officials improperly withheld data on the number of deaths in those facilities. Mr. Cuomo and health officials have said they held back data to ensure it was accurate, and their nursing home policies were crafted to preserve hospital capacity during the height of the pandemic.

The overlapping probes have taken their toll on a governor who gained nationwide attention in 2020 for his daily briefings about the virus. He gave a prime-time address at the Democratic convention last summer and signed a $5.1 million contract for a memoir about his handling of the pandemic. It was released in October, at the start of a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Ms. James’s office is conducting a separate probe on whether Mr. Cuomo used state resources in the production of the memoir. Administration aides said some officials volunteered to work on the book, and any other use of state resources was incidental.

Mr. Cuomo’s favorability rating among New York voters fell from 71% in March 2020 to 45% in July of this year, according to the Siena College Research Institute. The pace of his campaign fundraising has slowed as some major donors cut ties, but the governor still has $18.3 million on hand. That is more than twice the combined funds of his declared and potential rivals.

The report offered extensive new details about how the governor questioned women about their sex lives as well as touched and hugged them. Mr. Cuomo referred to the executive assistant and another assistant, Alyssa McGrath as “mingle mamas.”

The executive assistant testified that the governor rubbed her buttocks for five seconds while posing for a picture on New Year’s Eve 2019, and the photographs were blurry because her hands were shaking.

She also told investigators that on Nov. 16, 2020, the governor pulled her into his office and hugged her, then groped her breast over her bra. She said she went to her car, took a deep breath, and said to herself, “okay, everything that just happened I have to now pretend like it didn’t just happen.”

She said that she became so nervous about Mr. Cuomo’s interactions that she would break out in hives.

Rita Glavin, the governor’s lawyer, said in a written response that Mr. Cuomo never groped the executive assistant and said the woman communicated with other state aides that day saying that things at the mansion were going well.

—Corinne Ramey, Deanna Paul, Tarini Parti and Lindsay Wise contributed to this article.

Write to Jimmy Vielkind at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com