the latest fallout, the resignation of top aide melissa derosa, at his side during months of pandemic appearances, quitting under fire for aiding his cover-up of sexual harassment accusations, according to the investigation report. derosa says she's stepping aside after an emotionally and mentally trying two years. one of cuomo's accusers describes her interactions with the governor to cbs. >> these were not hugs that he would give his mother or, you know, his brother. these were hugs with the intention of getting some personal sexual satisfaction out of. and then there was at one point a hug and then, when he went to kiss me on the cheek, he quickly turned his head and he kissed me on the lips. >> joining us now, nbc's kathy park in albany. governor cuomo disputes these allegations and denies any wrongdoing, but the state's democratic lawmakers are moving forward. there are some ripple effects within some major national advocacy groups. >> reporter: andrea, good afternoon. yeah, that is absolutely right. i'll start with some breaking news that probably just came in in the past hour o

and even lateesha james said to melissa derosa she had been at an event and heard she was not credible. yet the report credits her 100%. that is problematic. that is very problematic. i do take issue. again, i don't mean to be -- i do take issue that governor groped and fondled all of these women. you need to look at it is equally take theively different. we have kaitlyn does not suggest that the governor groped or fondled her. neither does the health care worker. >> i understand that. i understand you want to -- >> it's a bit frustrating. >> you want to go through every case. we don't the time for that. certainly that will come out. i do want to say over the weekend you characterized the attorney general's report as an ambush. do you still stand fwha? >> absolutely. >> okay. so let me just share -- let me share something with you. two things. one, nothing in state law actually says that you or your client are entitled to get a report from the attorney general's office beforehand. i actual will you want to put up for viewers a letter you sent to the attorney general actually -- i think

the long time aide secretary to the governor melissa derosa is stepping down, and that is significant and she has been alongside through thick and thin for many years, yasmin. >> and barbara, talking through several scenarios taking place with the governor and as dasha was speaking, charles lavine was on the screen talking at the press conference that we are monitoring. and so, you have one criminal investigation in albany and another in westchester and going down the state to manhattan and all three simultaneously taking place, and how do they progress and when do they go from investigation to charge, and could they affect one another? >> i think they could, but one of the things that is very important in a criminal case is the admissibility of evidence of prior bad acts, and so if somebody did something that they are charged with is not admissible, because it is not assumed that somebody has a propensity to commit a crime, but if there is something that proves the motive or the lack of mistake or the m.o., then those things become admissible, and hearing such consistent stories from

one key thing that happened actually over the weekend on sunday was the resignation of melissa derosa, his top aide, the woman who has spent -- if you watched every single briefing last year, if you were in the room like myself, she was in the room next to him and he was the person he would turn to to describe certain things going on with the pandemic, but also years and years of background and history between the two so once she detargeted and said she was going to resign. that was a major sign. i still didn't think it was going to be as soon as yesterday that the governor would step down, but melissa derosa's departure was absolutely a major sign of the governor being at the end. >> yeah. and to your point, his attorney ryota glavin was on this program the day before sounding defiant on behalf of her client and to a lawyer's perspective, cindy, i want to get your reaction to the governor's defense here, and a little bit and we saw it, you know, in that news conference where he kind of said, you know, he's from a different generation. he used and tried to infer that there was a cultu

and when you've lost melissa derosa, who's been with him for ages, it is officially over. i think maybe that was the moment when he timely realized it's time for me to willingly go down instead of being forced out and even further disgraced. >> well, look, it doesn't sound like you're ready to give an answer. maybe you would have given it to me already. do you think it's time to move on or should this investigation go on, should impeachment still be in the air? it's clear the governor decided he doesn't want to go through with this investigation and trial. is him resigning punishment enough for you? >> well, look, i think one of the foundations here is that whether you're the 11 women who have come forward, there's word there are other women who are now coming forward to the attorney general since the report, there's got to be accountability. and certainly him being removed from office through resignation, that is some significant level of account. but my colleagues and i, we've yet to discuss whether that is enough, whether there should be impeachment. and look, this is g

derosa resigned. she was named 187 time in the state attorney general's report which said she had attempted to undermine where the governor's accusers -- also tonight we're getting a picture of how donald trump attempted to manipulate the justice department in order to stay in power. new york times reporting it comes from trump's former acting attorney general jeffrey rosen who quote, has told the justice department watchdog in congressional investigators that one of the deputies tried to help former president donald j trump subvert the results of the 2020 election. the times reports rosen left with the justice department friday, and voluntarily gave closed-door testimony to the senate judiciary saturday and the paper says rosen told investigators about numerous interactions with jeffrey clark, a trump official at the doj including one in december during which clark admitted to meeting with former president trump. rosen reportedly told investigators clark and held unauthorized conversations with the f

. >>> melissa derosa was mentioned multiple times in the report alleging the governor had sexually harassed multiple women. she said the last few years have been emotional and trying and she thanks her colleagues. in a new quinnipiac university poll, 70% say it's time for cuomo to step down compared to 25% who say he should stay in office. even 57% democrats who elected him to the highest state in office three times say he should resign following the attorney general's report. >>> coming up, vaccines for educators. plus, will covid booster shots be needed, and if so, who's going to get them first? we'll have that when dr. patel joins us in a moment. >>> before we go to break, email us at waytooearly@msnbc.com or tweet me @aliciamenendez. we're going to read your answers later in the show. to read your s later in the show. with a fresh face for a fresh start. for a limited time get a 5th cartridge free. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygienic clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free d

this weekend his top aide and most loyal strategist melissa derosa resigned. she was named 187 times in the state attorney general's report, which said she had attempted to undermine one of the governor's accusers. also tonight, we're getting a more detailed picture of how former president donald trump attempted to manipulate the justice department in order to stay in hour. "new york times" reporting it comes from trump's former acting attorney general jeff rosen who, quote, has told the justice department watchdog and congressional investigators that one of his deputies tried to help former president donald j. trump subvert the results of the 2020 election. "the times" reports rosen met with the justice department watchdog for two hours friday and voluntarily gave closed door testimony to the senate judiciary committee on saturday. the paper says rosen told investigators about numerous interactions with jeffrey clark, a trump-appointed official at the doj, including one in december during which clark admitted to meeting with former president trump. rosen repo

derosa, a top aide to cuomo and secretary also stepped down, but in her statement made no mention of any of the allegations. she denies any wrongdoing though she was also named in the ag report for an alleged retaliation campaign. pretty quiet at the albany strait capitol, a protester holding up signs calling for his resignation. i talked to committee members at the new york state assembly. they met yesterday to discuss impeachment proceedings. friday we have a big deadline for cuomo, when he can submit any defense documents to the judiciary committee and then the judiciary committee will present findings to the assembly. the assembly will vote on whether to proceed with impeachment and the governor has 30 days to respond. after that, the trial would go to the senate. we are talking about hundreds of thousands of documents. they look in detail the ag report next monday in a secure location but we will all be watching very closely today at 11:00 a.m. eastern here as you mentioned to hear from cuomo's attorney and what she'll say. >> yes we will. we have to wonder how much longer cuomo

he also is now facing a new development, the resignation of his top appointed aide, melissa derosa, and she was his defender, and she was part of the visible and public response when some of the allegations first surfaced in march. >> i am incredibly proud of the work that this administration has done to further women's rights, to expand protections for women in the workplace. we have seen more women rise the highest levels in terms of commissioners and senior staff levels and we promoted each other and supported one another and i don't think this diminishes any of that. >> that was her argument in public, but what is significant about the attorney general's report is that it basically gives a process to look at the entire way the new york administration of governor cuomo dealt with the allegations, and one of the things it says is derosa was leading the charge to retaliate unfairly those that made complaints. and cuomo is to produce evidence by friday, and governor cuomo continues to deny all of the allegations. here's how one of his lawyers discussed his defense recently. >> the gover

overnight, cuomo's top aide melissa derosa resigning saying "the past two years have been emotional and making trying." the former aide to the governor previously known as executive assistant number one speaking out to cbs about her accusations of unwanted touching and groping by cuomo. >> he put his hand up my blouse and cupped my breast over my bra. i exactly remember looking down, seeing his hand, which is a large hand, thinking to myself, oh, my god. this is happening? it happened so quick, he didn't say anything. when i stopped it, he just pulled away, and walked away. >> the governor has not been charged with any crime. he disputes the allegations, and denies wrongdoing. we want to bring in kathy park, in albany for us and rebecca roiphe, former district attorney for manhattan. kathy, let's start with you. there's a big judiciary committee meeting happening. what are we expecting to come out of that? >> reporter: hey, lindsay, that's right. that meeting got under way at 9:30. obviously they will be discussing a lot of issues surrounding the governor, the most obvious one is that e

derosa who holds the title of secretary to the governor as well. she's often seen as being andrew cuomo's enforcer and "the washington post" noted that throughout the report derosa is portrayed as a constant force, taking part in the alleged effort to discredit women lining up officials to defend him and even confronting and chastising the governor about his behavior at one point. could she potentially be held liable in this case given her behavior? >> are i think that she could be potentially held liable civilly, absolutely. you see individuals in all types of these predatory cases where you have unwelcome or sexual misconduct because there's someone holding it together. the one thing that really stands out to me, ayman, you know, what she kind of brings to the table is more corroboration that this work mace was particularly hostile and unsafe for these women. you know, all of these 11 women, both former and current employees, particularly the one who made the report and the -- and instead of referring it to the governor's office, employee relatio

you've got melissa derosa, the secretary to the governor last night that -- the highest ranking nonelected official in the state resign last night. and then coming into this morning, you've got now the assembly judiciary committee meeting. all three of these things coming together. there's going to be a lot of discussion this morning at that meeting about next steps. and the governor has a lot of procedural fights he wants to wage. when i look at all of this, you're just thinking, he can do all of this and fight with the assembly but this saul politics now, and he is losing support. it's like quicksand. >> suzanne, derosa resigning. how dig a deal is this? she has been his huge shield since 2013. definitely the most recognizable name and face in that office outside of his. >> it's incredibly significant. she's a very loyal employee. she's in the middle of all of this. she's been by his side for years. and last night it was shocking just because you're now seeing interests diverge. and today the governor's heading into this meeting. he's not going to be there, but he's facing this potential

governor cuomo's most trusted adviser melissa derosa and the chairman of time's up, roberta kaplan, were noted in the report as being involved in an effort against the first cuomo accuser, lindsey boylan. tim o'brien is still with us and joyce vance is with us. tim, i will get to you in a moment. joyce, is there something that could force the governor's hand into resigning before he is impeached? >> i think it is politics more than law that comes into play here, nicolle. of course, there are reports albany has started a criminal investigation into one of these allegations. that appears to be a misdemeanor sort of investigation, and it is unlikely that it can move more quickly than the political proceedings. so i suspect we are looking at questions of politics, not law, at least in the short term here. . >> so, tim, the politics of this are pretty stark. i mean i don't know that the governor has any defenders left, not just in new york but in democratic national politics. how do you see this playing out? >> i see him as having to resign, and if he doesn't resign he is going to get impeach

the developments followed the abrupt resignation sunday night of cuomo's top aide, melissa derosa, the person most closely involved in coordinating his response to the allegations. a person close to derosa who spoke anonymously said that the long-time cuomo advisor did not think the governor could survive politically and that she had reached a breaking point. you know, surprised as we all were, barb, there were canaries in the mine. the president dropping his support, his advisers starting to resign. in hindsight maybe it's not so surprising at all. >> well, i think i was surprised today only because his lawyer came out and spent 45 minutes defending him. >> right. >> but i now think that that was probably damage control for the impeachment, to try to get them to stand down and any civil cases that may come and certainly the criminal investigations that are going forward. but when you talk about culture and compare what president trump was able to get away with, what andrew cuomo was not able to get away with, what is the difference? i see it as enablers within their own party. donald

derosa broke the camel's back and then his personal attorney came out, speaking on the live stream, coming out with the forceful defense and refuting what she had been saying all along and then the thought process is maybe this is the announcement, i'm staying on and fighting. you have to look at which friends did he have around him and the answer to that was really none at the end. nobody was sticking up for him, nobody was speaking it on his behalf, both in state politics, national politics, nobody was sticking up for him and it was difficult to see, one thing he said in the press conference which is believed to be true, difficult to see how he could move forward with governing and impeachment and with the tremendous cloud over his head and a complete lack of support. >> and the state assembly said if you don't resign, we're going to move forward with impeachment so he was in the corner a bit like that yesterday. he said that the investigation was quote, politically motivated. i think it's important to remind the viewers that he backed an independent investigation, backed by letit