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Prominent US legal professional and chairwoman of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, Roberta Kaplan, has resigned from the group amid criticism of her ties to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and her alleged efforts to discredit considered one of his accusers.
Kaplan, who co-founded the authorized protection fund within the wake of the #MeToo motion, submitted her resignation on Monday — saying that her work as a training lawyer conflicted together with her duties as chairwoman, the New York Times reported.
“As a result, I cannot offer the degree of transparency about my firm’s matters now being demanded, since that would be contrary to my responsibilities as a lawyer. 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,” she wrote.
The progressive legal professional was referenced in Attorney General Letitia James’ damning report launched final week that accused Cuomo of sexually harassing 11 girls. Her regulation agency additionally represented Cuomo’s high aide Melissa DeRosa throughout the investigation.
Investigators discovered that Kaplan had reviewed a draft op-ed letter that attacked Lindsey Boylan, who was the primary girl to publicly accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, in accordance to the report. The letter was by no means revealed.
Investigators say DeRosa, who resigned on Sunday, led the efforts to attempt to discredit Boylan.
DeRosa instructed investigators that Kaplan had reviewed the letter concerning Boylan and decided that it was “okay with some changes,” in accordance to the report.
“The draft letter or op-ed attacking Ms. Boylan — particularly when combined with the release of the confidential internal records to the press — constitutes retaliation,” the investigators wrote within the report.
Kaplan famous in her resignation letter the severity of the legal professional normal’s findings.
“Unfortunately, recent events have made it clear that even our apparent allies in the fight to advance women can turn out to be abusers,” she stated.
However, she stated she couldn’t reply questions on Cuomo or DeRosa due to her work as a training lawyer.
Her resignation got here as a bunch of sexual harassment survivors wrote an open letter to the Time’s Up board on Monday, accusing the group of “failing the survivor community.”
The letter stated the survivors have been “dismayed” to see Kaplan’s identify talked about within the legal professional normal’s report and accused the legal professional of serving to “Cuomo and his office retaliate against at least one of nearly a dozen women who were courageous in speaking up about the myriad of ways he abused his power and violated their bodies in the workplace.”
“Time’s Up has abandoned the very people it was supposed to champion. The board continues to fail to heed the outcry from survivors. Time’s Up is failing all survivors.”
Kaplan’s resignation additionally got here on the identical day that Brittany Commisso, the aide who lodged essentially the most critical accusations towards Cuomo, went public in a brand new interview — claiming he groped and hugged her for “personal sexual satisfaction” and turned her “dream job … into a nightmare.”
Commisso, beforehand recognized solely as “Executive Assistant #1,” tearfully detailed what she known as undesirable touching throughout creepy encounters with Cuomo, for whom she began working in 2017, in an interview with “CBS This Morning.”
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