BREAKING NEWS: America's largest LGBT advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign FIRES its president Alphonso David for advising ex-NY Governor Andrew Cuomo on how to handle sex pest claims
America's largest LGBT advocacy group has dramatically fired its president for allegedly helping ex-NY Governor Andrew Cuomo with sex pest claims.
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) announced it had terminated Alphonso David 'for cause' after a vote by the group's board on Monday night.
Board co-chairs Morgan Cox and Jodie Patterson said David's departure was effective immediately, and that he'd been ousted 'for violations of his contract with the human rights campaign.'
In a statement they said: 'Assisting Governor Cuomo's team... was in violation of HRC'S Conflict of Interest Policy and the mission of the HRC'.
They added that David's conduct had 'created damage to his reputation significant enough to impair his ability to effectively serve as the public face and voice of the HRC'.
'At HRC, we are fighting to bring full equality and liberation to LGBTQ+ people everywhere. That includes fighting on behalf of all victims of sexual harassment and assault,' the statement read.
David first came under fire after New York Attorney General Letitia James named him in her August 6 report on Cuomo allegedly sexually harassing 11 women.
She claimed David - a trained lawyer - had offered advice to Cuomo on how to handle the blowback.
David, who was the HRC's first black president, issued a furious rebuttal hours before his firing, claiming he was the victim and that he was being bullied out.
Alphonso David is pictured with former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo in February 2020
David, furthest right, is pictured with Andrew Cuomo while serving as his official counsel in April 2019
In 2018, David was working as a Counsel in Governor Cuomo's office when Lindsey Boylan - one of 11 women whose claims of sexual harassment were substantiated by the AG - was also employed there.
At that time, David was tasked with putting together a personnel file on Boylan after several assistants complained to HR that she was a bully.
The personnel files on Boylan, compiled by David, described how three black female assistants alleged Boylan treated them 'like children'.
Boylan subsequently resigned voluntarily.
David also eventually left Cuomo's office when he was appointed president of the HRC in 2019.
In December 2020, Boylan went public with the first allegations of sexual harassment, tweeting that Cuomo was an 'abuser'.
Quickly afterwards, Cuomo's aide Melissa DeRosa contacted David to ask him for the file he had put together regarding Boylan's bullying accusations back in 2018.
He replied, adding in Judith Mogul, Special Counsel to the Governor who still works there, and handing over the document which he'd kept a record of.
Cuomo's communications director Richard Azzopardi then sent the files to reporters from CBS, The Hill, NY1 News, NY Daily News, New York Post, Associated Press, and the New York Times.
Critics say there was no need for David to respond, given that he no longer worked for Cuomo. They allege he set a smear campaign against Boylan in motion.
Alphonso David used to work for Cuomo but is now an LGBTQ rights crusader. In 2018, he had a meeting with accuser Lindsey Boylan about complaints that other female staff had made against her. He made a personnel file about her, and in 2020, after Boylan went public, Cuomo's aides pushed that file out to journalists to try to discredit her
Two days ago, David took to Twitter claiming an investigation into his behavior while working with Cuomo had been complete and that there was no evidence he had done anything wrong.
David said he'd been asked to resign from the HRC without a 'shred of evidence'. He claimed he would not be standing down.
HRC co-chairs Jodie Patterson and Morgan Cox subsequently sent a company-wide email in response to David's statement, accusing him of 'mischaracterization' and saying that there had been evidence of wrongdoing on his part, without offering further specifics.
In their statement announcing David's termination on Monday, Patterson and Cox shot back: 'Yesterday and today, Mr. David released a statement that included significant untruths about the [Cuomo] investigation and his status with the organization.'
'This is a painful moment in our movement. While the Board’s decision is not the outcome we had ever envisioned or hoped for in terms of Mr. David’s tenure with HRC, his actions have put us in an untenable position.'
David has yet to publicly respond to his ouster.
David isn't the first prominent person of a progressive moment to come under fire for his contact with Cuomo.
Last month, Time's Up leader Roberta Kaplan resigned after it was revealed that she helped embattled governor Andrew Cuomo draft a letter seeking to discredit allegations from one of his sexual harassment accusers.
In her resignation Kaplan cited her work counseling Cuomo and his former top aide, Melissa DeRosa, through the attorney general's investigation, according to The New York Times.
'I therefore have reluctantly come to the conclusion that an active law practice is no longer compatible with serving on the Board at Time's Up at this time and I hereby resign,' Kaplan wrote in her resignation letter.
Ironically, Kaplan was the Chair of the Board of Directors of Time´s Up and cofounder of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, which aids women who have experienced sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
Last month, Time's Up leader Roberta Kaplan resigned after it was revealed that she helped embattled governor Andrew Cuomo draft a letter seeking to discredit allegations from one of his sexual harassment accusers
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