ALBANY — Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, the Rensselaer County executive-elect, was sanctioned Wednesday by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie for his actions related to a June 2016 incident in which a female Assembly aide accused him of asking her to provide nude photos.

The sanctioning of McLaughlin, who is scheduled to step down from his Assembly post at the end of December, follows a 17-month investigation by the Assembly's Committee on Ethics and Guidance. The probe centered on allegations made by an aide to Assemblyman Andy Goodell, a Republican from Jamestown, who said McLaughlin asked her for nude photos during a brief encounter on the bustling Assembly floor last year.

The investigation, led by CUNY law professor Merrick Rossein, included a review of video footage of the Assembly chamber during the alleged exchange, as well as interviews with McLaughlin, potential witnesses and legislative staff members.

McLaughlin denies asking the woman for nude photos, and said he hired Albany attorney Karl J. Sleight to defend him in the secret investigation, which dragged on for more than a year. McLaughlin said his defense included calling witnesses who he said did not notice anything unusual that day in the chamber and providing footage of his brief interaction with the female staffer.

"If you look there's like no reaction," he said of their exchange. "There's tons of people around. ... It's just normal, a minute (or) 30 seconds. Everyone's milling around."

The Assembly's Ethics Committee initially reported to Heastie in June that it split 4-4 on whether the alleged sexual harassment took place, but they required that McLaughlin receive additional harassment training. McLaughlin said he agreed to undergo the one-day training, and did so in July, only because members of the committee threatened to write a letter to Heastie making the allegations public if he did not attend.

But the committee, on Rossein's recommendation, reversed its decision in September and concluded that McLaughlin was guilty of the harassment after its members determined that he leaked information about the investigation, including the name of the alleged victim, to Assembly staffers. The Assembly's harassment policy prohibits employees, including lawmakers, from divulging information about an ethics investigation.

McLaughlin, in an interview late Wednesday afternoon, said he complained to the committee that someone was leaking information about the case, and that he denied being the source.

"I just never said a damn thing," McLaughlin said, adding that he blamed members of the committee for the leaks, although he offered no evidence to back up the claim.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, McLaughlin characterized the Assembly's investigative process as "a pathetic political hit job" and alleged the committee was used "as a political weapon to release untrue, baseless and legally infirm allegations against me in an attempt to negatively impact my career as a pubic servant."

McLaughlin denied that he engaged "in any sexual misconduct" or violated any Assembly policies. He noted that a June 23 letter from the Assembly speaker initially concluded there was "no finding of a violation."

"Prior to this renegade committee’s actions, several weeks ago ... I instructed my attorney to report this potential criminal conduct to the Office of the Albany County District Attorney," McLaughlin said in the statement, alluding to what he alleges has been a violation of his civil rights.

The Assembly's investigation was not related to separate allegations uncovered by the Times Union in late August indicating a top female aide to McLaughlin accused him of roughing her up during a heated argument at his residence that month. In that case, McLaughlin denied that he ever assaulted his aide but conceded that he had made multiple vulgar remarks to her.

The Legislative Ethics Commission recently turned away a complaint that was filed in connection with the August incident involving McLaughlin and his former aide.

Lisa Reid, in a written response to a complaint that was filed by a person close to the aide, said the commission "does not have the authority to conduct investigations" and referred the person to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, according to a copy of the response obtained by the Times Union.

In September, the Assembly committee issued a final report concluding that McLaughlin had disclosed the June 2016 allegations to an Assembly employee, who then spread the information. The committee also asserted that McLaughlin made those disclosures before he was told by the Ethics Committee who had brought the complaint, "undermining his claim (during the initial investigation) that he had no idea who would make such claims against him."

McLaughlin, who was interviewed by Rossein in August 2016 and January 2017, declined to go before the Ethics Committee in October and again this month after the committee notified him of "renewed allegations" that he had sexually harassed the employee. In declining to be heard, McLaughlin implied in a letter that the committee was the source of the leak, according to the documents.

Karl Sleight, McLaughlin's attorney, did not respond to a request for comment last week after McLaughlin declined to appear before the Assembly's ethics committee, which met for more than two hours behind closed doors on Nov. 21.

The sanctions include a letter of admonition, and a new order that he cease revealing the name of the complainant and details of the allegations and investigation. In addition, McLaughlin must reimburse the chamber for the cost of the supplemental sexual harassment and retaliation prevention training he took in July.

In an interview Wednesday, McLaughlin said he was billed more than $10,000 in legal fees defending himself, and that he has no intention of paying for the sensitivity training.

McLaughlin said Rossein interviewed his current and former staff members, including interns, and that to his knowledge no one provided statements indicating any history of sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct on his part.

"I was so careful about this stuff I wouldn’t even be in my office with an intern," McLaughlin said. "I was cautious about that stuff. Not one single person ever said, 'Oh yeah, he did this.' In fact it was the opposite."

A provision in the sanction handed down by Heastie is that McLaughlin is barred from having any interns working in his Assembly or district office.

That punishment will be rendered moot by McLaughlin's imminent departure to take up his new role as Rensselaer County executive in January. He won a Republican primary in September against Chris Meyer, the deputy county executive, before narrowly beating Democrat Andrea Smyth, whose campaign made an issue of McLaughlin's treatment of women, three weeks ago.

"This is like their final shot," McLaughlin said, adding that he has been an outspoken critic of the Legislature and governor during his seven years in the Assembly. "They are operating however they want, like a kangaroo court."

Smyth said she does not blame the "pace of the Assembly investigation" that resulted in the sanctioning of McLaughlin coming three weeks after the general election he won. She said voters already had received information that raised questions about McLaughlin's treatment of women.

"To me, his behavior is (to say) 'fake news, fake allegations' … but very real harassment," she said. "The fact that the voters didn’t want to see it as a pattern, whether they knew there was more or not, was their choice. ... How long is it going to be before the taxpayers are burdened with another settlement over an allegation of sexual harassment with this person?"