Roberta Kaplan, chairwoman of Time’s Up, resigned after New York Attorney General Letitia James’s report identified her as someone who allegedly tried to discredit one of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s accusers.
Time’s Up formed out of the #MeToo movement when Hollywood women spoke out against Harvey Weinstein.
Kaplan’s firm represented then-Cuomo top aide Melissa DeRosa during the investigation.
DeRosa left her post as Cuomo’s secretary on Sunday. The investigators claimed she “led the effort against” Boylan.
From The New York Times:
The report from the state attorney general’s office found that Ms. Kaplan had reviewed a draft of a disparaging op-ed letter that was aimed at attacking the character of Lindsey Boylan, a former Cuomo aide who was the first to publicly accuse him of sexual harassment.The op-ed letter was never published. It was part of a broader effort in which Mr. Cuomo and his aides sought counsel from former administration officials including Alphonso David, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest L.G.B.T.Q. political lobbying organization in the country; Tina Tchen, the chief executive of Time’s Up; and the governor’s brother, Chris Cuomo, an anchor on CNN.All of those figures have come under criticism for their connections to Mr. Cuomo.
Kaplan’s letter to Nina Shaw, the vice-chair of Time’s Up’s board of directors, reads like a resume. In the end, she said she has to uphold “loyalty and confidentiality.”
“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,” wrote Kaplan.
David also faces calls to resign from the Human Rights Campaign. Like Kaplan, he insists he did not know about any misconduct.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY