New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his wife.
The New York Attorney General's office made public records showing that Andrew Cuomo's closest advisors used a campaign finance aide to seek damaging information on Boylan, who has accused him of sexual harassment.
During the investigation into Cuomo's alleged sexual harassment of former aides and associates, the top aide to the governor told investigators that she tried to find information that could be used to plant a negative story about Boylan.
According to DeRosa, Boylan was working with other New York politicians to bring down Cuomo. She said at the time that Cuomo's team didn't try to plant the story they were aiming to put together on Boylan. The exhibits show that Richard Azzopardi, Cuomo's chief spokesman, received emails about the effort.
Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing. He resigned in August after the state Attorney General released a report about Cuomo.
Azzopardi and an attorney for DeRosa did not reply to emails. Before publication, Boylan did not return a request for comment.
DeRosa told state investigators that she was trying to get a list of donors who supported Boylan when she ran for Manhattan president. Vendors who worked with Boylan's campaign for Congress are being looked into by investigators.
Boylan, who worked in the Cuomo administration, accused the former governor of harassing her. She lost in a Democratic primary. She lost in a primary to Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., when she ran for Congress in 2020.
The records released by James' office show that a Cuomo campaign finance director sent an email about Boylan's donors. The list of Boylan's vendors was sent to DeRosa and Azzopardi. The campaign finance director's name was concealed by the attorney general.
A list of over two dozen campaign vendors that once worked for Boylan was included in a February letter from the Cuomo campaign aide to DeRosa and Azzopardi.
DeRosa told investigators that Cuomo's team was trying to link Boylan's campaign finance records to political motivation. The vendor and donor lists were made public.
Cuomo's team pulled campaign finance information about Boylan, Biaggi, and Jumaane Williams, who is running for governor himself next year, according to DeRosa. Biaggi once worked in Cuomo's office and said the governor oversaw a toxic workplace. She told CNBC that she was a witness.
According to a transcript, DeRosa told investigators that he asked for Biaggi, Boylan, and Williams because he believed they were all working together.
An investigator asked if they were working together in what sense.
DeRosa said they wanted to take down the governor.
The executive director of Common Cause/New York criticized the efforts on behalf of Cuomo.
The records the Attorney General's Office released late last month were not illegal, but they were disgusting.
The 9th Annual Elly Awards hosted by the Women's Forum of New York was held in New York City.
The names of the donors were blocked by the Attorney General's Office. The public disclosure file of Boylan's past supporters was compared by CNBC to the redacted list included in the exhibits of the documents.
The Cuomo team was shown the names of the donors in January, including the CEO of Tusk Strategies and a member of the Allen family.
After reviewing the records, DeRosa thought that there could be a campaign finance violation in the donor files. According to the transcripts, she was told by another Cuomo advisor that there was no violation. DeRosa thought it was a story to plant.
DeRosa told investigators that he thought there was campaign finance fraud because of the way the donors were laid out. It appeared as if someone gave money from different addresses, which would have been campaign finance fraud, because it would have impacted the public matching funds.
