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Human Rights Campaign Fires President After He Advised Andrew Cuomo During Sexual Misconduct Scandal

   DailyWire.com
Counsel to the Governor at Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Alphonso David attends the 2016 Human Rights Campaign New York gala dinner at The Waldorf=Astoria on February 6, 2016 in New York City.
Noam Galai/WireImage

Alphonso David has been fired as the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), after he was implicated in assisting former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attempts to smear the women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

The New York Times reported that David was ousted on Monday by the HRC’s board due to reports that he had advised Cuomo during the former governor’s sexual misconduct scandal.

“Mr. David, the group’s first Black president, was terminated ‘for cause’ in separate votes by the boards of the Human Rights Campaign and its affiliated foundation after the two boards held a joint meeting. Beyond two abstentions from the foundation board, the votes were unanimous,” the Times reported.

The New York Post added that David’s name was removed from its staff directory within minutes of announcing he had been fired.

As The Daily Wire previously reported, findings from a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James indicated David had provided confidential personnel files for Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsey Boylan, to Cuomo’s staff. David no longer worked in the governor’s office when he provided the information.

David provided Boylan’s information following a request from former Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa. DeRosa at that time texted David asking to see Boylan’s “full file,” according to the AG report.

David told DeRosa that another staffer should be able to provide the file for Boylan’s time in the Governor’s office. On December 11, 2020, just two days after Boylan’s first tweet about Cuomo, David sent Azzopardi “files relating to his investigation into and counseling of Ms. Boylan shortly before her departure from the Executive Chamber that he had retained and taken with him when he left the Executive Chamber.” The report refers to these files as the “Confidential Files,” which included:

  1. a September 20, 2018 memorandum to Mr. David Regarding ‘Confidential Personnel Matter”;
  2. a September 26, 2018 memorandum to Mr. David labeled “Draft, privileged and confidential – Attorney Client Privileged Communication / Intra-Agency Communication / Memo to File”;
  3. a September 30, 2018 email from Mr. David labeled “Privileged and confidential / Attorney client communication / Attorney work product.”

David told investigators with the AG’s office that he kept copies of these files because it “may have been the only instance where [he] was actually involved in a counseling of an employee when [he] was in the Executive Chamber.”

On Twitter, David alleged that he had been pressured to resign before he was fired and that he had been given conflicting information about the HRC’s investigations into his conduct. He also claimed the board indicated it had “found no evidence of wrongdoing.”

“Their refusal to offer up the findings, even with the indication that they found no evidence of wrongdoing, and yet still urge me to consider resigning during a holiday weekend to avoid media interest, does a disservice to any persons or organizations involved in the fight for civil and human rights,” David wrote.

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