Time's Up cleans house over Cuomo scandal: #MeToo group fires most of its 25 staffers just months after top execs resigned in disgrace for helping ex-New York governor fight 'sex pest' allegations
Time’s Up, the #MeToo advocacy group founded in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, laid off nearly all of its staff on Friday just months after the organization’s top executives resigned for helping Andrew Cuomo discredit one of his accusers.
Most of the staff of 25 people were informed Friday they were being laid off at the end of the year, with a skeleton crew of three remaining.
The layoffs are part of recommendations included in a report commissioned to examine the organization’s failings in the wake of the Cuomo scandal.
Four board members will stay on, including Hollywood star Ashley Judd, as the organization decides its next steps and chooses leadership.
Monifa Bandele, the former chief financial officer who had taken over as interim CEO, is also stepping down.
Time's Up, the #MeToo advocacy group co-founded by Hollywood star Ashley Judd (left), laid off most of its 25 full-time staffers on Friday just months after its top executives resigned. The executives quit after it was learned they helped then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (right) attempt to discredit a former aide who came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment
Tina TChen (left) resigned early this year as CEO of Time's Up after it was learned that she and another top executive, Roberta Kaplan (right), consulted with Cuomo aides in an effort to combat sexual harassment allegations against the then-governor. Kaplan resigned in August
Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Cuomo, alleged last December that the then-governor kissed her on the lips and sexually harassed her. Cuomo has denied the allegations
Tchen and Kaplan consulted with Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo's top aide, after Boylan went public with her accusations. DeRosa (left) and Cuomo are seen above in New York in September 2018
In August, Roberta Kaplan, the chairman of the board of directors, resigned after it was revealed that the prominent lawyer helped then-New York Governor Cuomo draft a letter seeking to discredit a former aide to the then-governor, Lindsey Boylan.
Time’s Up declined to support Boylan after Kaplan and Tina Tchen, who was the organization’s chief executive at the time, conferred with Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, according to The Washington Post.
Last December, Boylan, who once worked for the Cuomo administration as a member of the state’s economic development agency, alleged that she endured repeated instances of harassment from the then-governor.
Boylan, who failed in her bid to win the Manhattan borough presidency, alleged that Cuomo kissed her in his office. She also alleged that he invited her to play strip poker on a government airplane.
Cuomo, who resigned as governor after several women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, has vehemently denied the allegations.
Cuomo resigned in August and avoided a likely impeachment trial amid findings that he sexually harassed at least 11 women.
Cuomo has said he never intended to touch anyone inappropriately or make inappropriate remarks.
A prosecutor investigating accusations that Cuomo groped a woman asked a judge for more time to evaluate the evidence, saying the criminal complaint filed last month by the local sheriff was 'potentially defective,' according to a letter.
Tina Tchen posted a lengthy statement on the organization's website in August saying she was 'profoundly sorry' for backing the disgraced governor
Boylan called on Tchen to resign from the charity after she issued the apology
Tchen claimed she had no knowledge of efforts to discredit Boylan until New York State Attorney General Letitia James (seen above in August) released a damning report
Details of the attempt to assemble the letter discrediting Boylan's accusations are contained in the 165-page attorney general report
The request from Albany County District Attorney David Soares throws the high-profile case into further turmoil a week after Cuomo was charged with committing a misdemeanor sex crime.
The one-page complaint filed in Albany City Court by a sheriff’s office investigator accuses Cuomo of forcible touching by putting his hand under a woman's shirt on December 7.
Soares, who has said he was caught off guard by the filing, said in a letter to Judge Holly Trexler that his office had been investigating the matter for several months.
After Boylan went public with her allegations, the leaders of Time’s Up told staffers to ‘stand down’ from a plan to issue a statement in support of the ex-aide.
Secret backchannel talks between Cuomo aides and Time’s Up were revealed by the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who oversaw the investigation into several instances of alleged sexual harassment by Cuomo.
The anger over Time’s Up decision not to support Boylan led to the resignations of both Kaplan and Tchen.
Judd, who helped found the group and serves as one of its board members, reportedly broke down in tears on Friday during a virtual conference call announcing the layoffs.
'We're going down to the studs,' said Judd, one of the group’s most visible members and a key early voice in the broader #MeToo movement, in an interview.
James' report found that Cuomo's staff sought the help of Tchen and Time's Up Legal Defense Fund founder and board chair Roberta Kaplan (pictured) while drafting a letter denying allegations made against the governor by Boylan. Kaplan resigned in August
Roberta Kaplan, Julianne Moore, Andrew Cuomo, Mira Sorvino and Michelle Hurd are seen during the signing of New York State legislation extending the stature of limitations for rape in 2019
'We're going to rebuild and reset and come back in a way that honors our mandate, incorporates the voices of our critics, learns from our findings...and holds ourselves accountable but also lives up to our potential.'
Staffers that were laid off blasted the organization for firing low-level employees while retaining the chief financial officer, chief development officers, and head of entertainment, according to The Daily Beast.
'Most of us weren't in the leadership team when the Cuomo stuff happened, yet we're the ones being punished for past actions of the organization,' one of the fired employee told The Daily Beast.
'Yet again, Time's Up is putting the interests of the organization over its own staff members.
'We've obviously become collateral damage in all of this.'
Time's Up was formed close to four years ago by a group of high-profile Hollywood women — producers, agents, movie stars — eager to build on the momentum from the Weinstein scandal and fight sexual harassment in their own industry and beyond.
The group pledged to be a voice for women from all walks of life, but it has been plagued by criticism — from outside, and also from within — that it was too aligned with Hollywood and less attentive to the needs of others.
When Bandele took over interim leadership, she pledged the group would ask itself: 'What are our conflicts of interests, what are our guardrails?'
No comments