Human Rights Campaign fires president for advising Cuomo over allegations
The Human Rights Campaign has fired its president, Alphonso David, over his involvement in former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s response to allegations of sexual misconduct.
In a statement on Monday, the largest US LGBTQ rights group said David was fired because “his actions have put us in an untenable position by violating [our] core values, policies and mission”.
An investigation last month by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, found that David advised Cuomo on how to respond to allegations. According to the report, after a former Cuomo adviser, Lindsey Boylan, accused the governor of sexual harassment, David, a former counselor to Cuomo, allegedly shared Boylan’s personal file with another top adviser. The file was leaked to several reporters.
The James report also said David helped develop a plan to discredit another accuser, in which Cuomo would call her and secretly record their conversations.
“This conduct has created damage to Mr David’s reputation is significant enough to impair his ability to effectively serve as the public face and voice [of the HRC],” the group said.
David said: “After I demanded truth and transparency, the HRC board cochairs who should stand for human rights elected to hide in darkness. They unjustly provided notice of termination to me in order to end my fight for the integrity of the review process and for what is right.”
He added: “Expect a legal challenge.” According to David, HRC board members told him their own investigation, which he called for and with which he complied, found no wrongdoing.
“Despite the lack of any findings, the board co-chairs have asked me to consider resigning … because they feel the incident has been a ‘distraction’ for the organization,” he said.
David refused to resign on Sunday. The organization then moved to fire him.
HRC’s chief operating officer, Joni Madison, will fill David’s position as the HRC looks for a new leader.
David’s firing comes shortly after the resignation of Time’s Up chief Tina Tchen, who quit the sexual harassment victims’ advocacy group amid outrage over her ties to Cuomo.
James’s report found that Roberta Kaplan, a co-founder of Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, consulted with Tchen about letters Cuomo’s team planned to release in their defense against Boylan’s allegations.