Did Cuomo Ask Ex-Aide Lindsey Boylan To 'Play Strip Poker' With Him? Girouard Cites Flight Logs

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office Wednesday denied accusations made by a former aide that the governor proposed that she "play strip poker" with him in October 2017.

Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor, published a blog post on Medium where she accused Cuomo of “inappropriate behavior” during a 2017 flight.

The former aide also provided details of Cuomo suggesting they "play strip poker" together as they flew together after attending an event.

"We were flying home from an October 2017 event in Western New York on his taxpayer-funded jet," Boylan wrote in the post titled 'My story of working with Governor Cuomo.' "He was seated facing me, so close our knees almost touched. His press aide was to my right and a state trooper behind us."

“Let’s play strip poker,” Gov. Cuomo allegedly told Boylan while on the flight.

Cuomo’s press secretary Caitlin Girouard dismissed Boylan’s claims as false. The press secretary cited logs of Cuomo’s flights in October 2017, and said they showed Boylan was never left alone with the governor, a single press aide and an NYS trooper during those flights.

"As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false, Girouard said in a statement, which listed out the manifests of four flights from the month when Boylan and Cuomo had flown together.

The release also contained a statement signed by four current and former administration officials who were aboard the flights in which Boylan had accompanied the New York governor.

“We were on each of these October flights and this conversation did not happen,” said John Maggiore, Howard Zemsky, Dani Lever and Abbey Fashouer Collins in the statement.

Three people who worked in Cuomo’s administration told The New York Times they could not corroborate Boylan’s claim. However, they said there were several moments when the governor made inappropriate remarks during work.

Ashley Cotton, a former aide to Cuomo when he was state attorney general, said the governor often made jokes but denied that he made inappropriate remarks.

“I’ve known and spent over 20 years working with Andrew Cuomo — he is the same person in private as he is in public,” Cotton told The Times. “He can be funny, he can make lousy jokes, he can be tough and direct. But I have never known him to cross the line.”

Boylan ran in the 2020 primary as a Democrat against U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler. She’s currently running for the presidency of the Manhattan borough in New York City.