[ad_1]
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide spoke repeatedly with state police about the bodyguard who began dating his daughter — and briefed her boss once the state trooper got transferred, the aide told investigators.
Melissa DeRosa volunteered the information near the end of the second and final day of her grilling by investigators, saying she “wanted to come back and correct” earlier testimony in which she denied having “been involved in any trooper transfers.”
“I don’t know if you could say I was involved in, but I had discussions about the transfer of a trooper,” DeRosa testified on July 6, the transcript shows.
Several parts of the Q&A were blacked out before AG Letitia James released the transcript along with a trove of other documents on Monday, but a source confirmed DeRosa was discussing Trooper Dane Pfeiffer.
Last year, The Post exclusively revealed that Pfeiffer was transferred from Cuomo’s security detail to a post near the Canadian border after the then-governor learned he was dating daughter Cara Kennedy-Cuomo.
The state police claimed at the time that Pfeiffer had requested a “voluntary transfer,” but a source familiar with the situation said Pfeiffer “was transferred to keep him away from the daughter because the governor didn’t like whatever they were doing.”
During her testimony, DeRosa said Pfeiffer — whose name is blacked out — “requested a transfer, and I spoke to the state police about that at the time.”
When asked by lawyer Jennifer Kennedy Park who she spoke with, DeRosa said Vincent Straface, the former head of the Cuomo’s security detail, and another person whose name is blacked out but appears to be Pfeiffer.
“Did they reach out to you or did you reach out to them?” Kennedy Park asked.
“I don’t remember what order it happened in. And there were a number of conversations,” DeRosa answered.
In an exchange that’s heavily redacted, DeRosa said the discussions involved a “problem” with a “member of the state police detail,” adding that she felt “a little bit uncomfortable talking about” it.
DeRosa said the state police “kept me updated on the process and what was going on.”
Asked if she was “briefing the governor,” DeRosa said, “Not in real time.”
“I don’t like to give him half information, so at the conclusion I briefed him,” she said.
“What did you tell him?” Kennedy Park asked.
“That [Pfeiffer] had requested a transfer and that they were transferring him to a troop that he had previously been assigned to that was north of Albany,” DeRosa answered.
Following Cuomo’s August resignation over allegations he sexually harassed 11 women — including a member of his security detail — Pfeiffer was promoted to sergeant and transferred to New York City on Thanksgiving, The Post exclusively revealed last month.
It’s unclear if he and Cara Kennedy-Cuomo are still dating.
The head of the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association said DeRosa’s testimony “doesn’t surprise me.”
“I saw this happen again again again with [Cuomo’s] office — the micromanaging,” union president Tom Mungeer said.
“In the last ten years, I’ve seen the top people in the governor’s office micromanaging the day-to-day operations in the state police.”
DeRosa didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
[ad_2]