6 August 2021: Leader of LGBTQ Group Participated in Smears of Cuomo Sex Harassment Victim

Damning N.Y. AG report on Cuomo ensnares HRC president

The NY Attorney General's report on Andrew M. Cuomo's sexual harassment of 11 women is having an impact on players inside Cuomo's political network. This report describes how Alphonso David, the president of Human Rights Campaign, a LBGTQ political advocacy group, participated in Team Cuomo's retaliation efforts aimed at smearing Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to publicly come forward to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment.

The damning report finding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo violated the law by sexually harassing as many as 11 women on his staff has ensnared the president of the nation’s leading LGBTQ advocacy group, Alphonso David of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

Although David insists the report does not indicate any wrongdoing on his behalf, the findings indicate after his tenure as counselor to Cuomo, that he kept the personnel file for an employee within the office accusing the governor of sexual misconduct, then assisted in efforts to leak that file to the media in an attempt to discredit her.

Further, the report finds David allegedly said he would help find individuals to sign their names to a draft op-ed that sought to discredit the survivor, but went unpublished, although he wouldn’t sign the document himself. Also, the report indicates David was involved in the discussions about another staffer secretly calling and recording a call between a former staffer and another survivor in a separate effort to smear her.

Senior officials within HRC are rejecting calls for David to resign following the confirmation of his role in the attempted smears.

Meanwhile, the board of the Human Rights Campaign has shown no sign of turning on David. In fact, HRC announced it renewed David’s contract on his two-year anniversary for five more years.

Morgan Cox, chair of the Human Rights Campaign board of directors, and Jodie Patterson, chair of the non-profit Human Rights Campaign Foundation board of directors in a joint statement to the Washington Blade affirmed both boards “have full confidence in Alphonso David as president of the organization.”...

Speaking with the Blade, David also said he has no intention of stepping down from his position as president of the Human Rights Campaign voluntarily.

The strange decision to retain David as HRC president sets up the next news item from 5 August 2021:

Human Rights Campaign staff reportedly revolts over boss’ ties to Cuomo scandal

This report covers the infighting within HRC that broke out regarding David's role in smearing Cuomo sexual harassment accuser Lindsey Boylan:

Staff at the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights advocacy group, appear to be on the brink of a mutiny after they discovered their top boss was involved with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal, reports said Thursday.

HRC President Alphonso David was excoriated for nearly an hour and a half during a staff meeting Wednesday after employees learned he had a direct role in attempting to discredit a Cuomo accuser while employed with the human rights group, the Huffington Post reported.

The file included disciplinary issues Boylan had while working for the governor that David “counseled” her on and was later leaked to the press to discredit her after she publicly accused Cuomo of sexual harassment in a series of tweets last December.

David, a longtime member of Cuomo’s coterie of confidantes, told staff he was “legally obligated” to hand over the copy of the file even though he no longer worked for the governor and said it was just a replica and not the official state document, the outlet reported.

Staff weren’t satisfied with his answers and many demanded that he resign, the outlet said, citing a recording of the meeting they obtained.

David's action is consistent with the establishment of a hostile work environment within the Cuomo administration and, to the extent HRC's board is willing to look the other way at his actions while on their payroll, the establishment of a toxic work culture within HRC as well.

This is the second of three stories we're featuring on this topic, where one of the common elements that appear in each is the integration of former Cuomo administration officials within the media and advocacy organizations where they continued serving Andrew M. Cuomo's interests. Their new employers would appear to share a bizarre tolerance for their activities on behalf of Andrew M. Cuomo while on their payrolls.