A veteran journalist for The New York Times behaved inappropriately towards Andrew Cuomo’s then-top aide before his reporting helped out the disgraced former governor’s alleged sexual misconduct, according to The Washington Post.
The revelation of Jesse McKinley’s own alleged misconduct—and the subsequent Times investigation that led to his reassignment—was reported Tuesday by Erik Wemple, a media critic for the Post. The incident and inquiry are outlined in detail in a forthcoming memoir by the ex-aide, Melissa DeRosa. The book, What’s Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis, is set to hit shelves next Tuesday.
In it, according to the Post, DeRosa recounts how Cuomo’s team would spar with reporters covering his administration, including McKinley, then the Times’ Albany bureau chief. After a particularly contentious exchange between the two men during a May 20, 2020 press conference, DeRosa called McKinley up for “an air-clearing meeting,” Wemple writes.
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Given the ongoing pandemic, they arranged to meet in McKinley’s backyard. Both drank at the meeting; but while DeRosa says she had no more than two glasses of wine, she watched as McKinley guzzled down more than a bottle on his own. At the end of the meeting, as she readied to leave, the reporter stopped her.
McKinley asked DeRosa if her eyes were blue or green, according to her account. When DeRosa responded, “Blue,” McKinley dissented. “Are you sure? I think they look green,” he said. He then grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer, allegedly asking her to “stay longer.” After a few seconds, DeRosa pulled her arm back and left.
McKinley did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday. A representative for DeRosa, a past contributor to The Daily Beast, declined to comment on the Post’s report.
Four people interviewed by the newspaper said DeRosa told them about the encounter shortly after it occurred. All four said the Times failed to reach out to them during an investigation into the incident that kicked off after DeRosa’s lawyers filed a complaint with The New York Times.
It was not clear from Wemple’s column when exactly the official complaint was made, but McKinley went on early the next year to publish an exclusive story documenting another Cuomo aide’s allegations of the governor’s sexual “overtures” to her. McKinley continued covering the mounting charges of misconduct against the governor until Cuomo’s resignation in Aug. 2021.
Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for The New York Times, told The Daily Beast in a statement after publication of this story that an “independent, external investigation did not substantiate Ms. DeRosa’s characterization of the events.”
“Following the investigation, the Times and McKinley agreed that reassignment to a new beat was advisable,” the statement read. “We also supported his decision to enter a substance abuse program.”
A noticeable gap in McKinley’s byline during the spring and summer of 2021 occurred in tandem with the bulk of his treatment, according to Rhoades Ha. His five-year tenure as Albany bureau chief came to a quiet end in July 2021, when a Times press release noted that he would become “Metro’s roving upstate correspondent.”
The Post also reported on Tuesday that it had found at least three other instances of alleged drunken misconduct by McKinley.
A former New York state politician told Wemple that McKinley had gotten drunk and eaten off her plate at a group dinner with her in 2019. When another person at the table left, McKinley turned to the politician and said, “You’re super cute,” according to the woman.
A former state official also alleged that, while at an Albany bar once, McKinley had grabbed her bottom and later made faces at her.
Finally, according to DeRosa’s book, an inebriated McKinley came on to another Cuomo staffer in his office. The reporter allegedly apologized for the episode via email the next day.
An unnamed insider quoted by the Post as “a Times source” said that McKinley refuted the latter two claims, and did not recall the specifics of the 2019 dinner.
In its statement, the Times told the Post, “We take all allegations very seriously and are reviewing the new accounts.”
