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Monday, former city comptroller Scott Stringer filed a defamation suit against a woman he claims “destroyed” his mayoral campaign with sexual assault charges last year.
In court documents, Stringer labeled the allegations made by Jean Kim, who worked on his 2001 campaign for public advocate, “false” and claimed they cost him crucial endorsements and the “goodwill of his voters.”
According to the lawsuit, “many voters were scared off by the idea of supporting a man against whom sexual assault claims were made.” “A poll conducted after Kim’s charges shown a decrease in Mr. Stringer’s favor. Additionally, media sites reported that the incident destroyed his mayoral campaign.”
In addition to “derail[ing] [his] 2021 New York City mayoral race,” Stringer asserts that Kim “has done irreparable injury to him and his political future by spreading malicious lies and accusing him of a sexual assault twenty years ago,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaint filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court seeks unspecified damages and an order compelling Kim to retract any defamatory statements.
In April 2021, Kim’s attorney alleged that Stringer “groped her, sexually touched her repeatedly without her consent, and made many sexual approaches that she rebuffed.”
Kim also staged a press conference in which she accused Stringer of asking her repeatedly, “Why won’t you f–k me?” during her unpaid internship with his 2001 campaign.
Before the charges broke, a NY1/Ipsos survey placed Stringer in third position for the Democratic mayoral primary on June 22, with 11% of potential voters naming him as their top choice.
Approximately two weeks following Kim’s press address, this number plummeted to 9 percent.
On Election Day, Stringer received only 5.5% of the first-round votes, placing him in fifth place, before being ousted in the ranked-choice battle won by Mayor Eric Adams.
Stringer said in his lawsuit that he and Jean had a “casual” and “consensual relationship” during his 2001 campaign and that Jean was a volunteer, not an intern.
The majority of the campaign’s interns were high school and college students, according to court documents.
According to court documents, “at the time Kim volunteered for the campaign, she was roughly 30 years old, older than any intern.”
Although the statute of limitations for defamation cases in New York is one year, Stringer is attempting to circumvent it on the grounds that Kim meant for her charges to be “republished” earlier this year.
On August 3, Stringer stated that Kim was spotted with former U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney at a campaign event during Maloney’s lost primary fight against incumbent U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn).
Maloney later “weaponized” Kim’s allegations in an article published by The Post on August 20 in which she blasted Nadler for having campaigned alongside Stringer, whom she described as “a guy accused of sexual assault,” according to Stringer’s lawsuit.
According to court documents, “it was reasonably foreseeable that Kim’s false and defamatory claims would be repeated when she met with and spoke with Maloney at her campaign event.”
Scott Stringer asserts that Rep. Carolyn Maloney “weaponized” Jean Kim’s charges in order to undermine Rep. Jerry Nadler for campaigning with the former city comptroller.
AP
The New York Times was the first to announce Stringer’s lawsuit, claiming it had received an advance copy and quoting Stringer as calling Kim’s charges “a complete fabrication.”
“And I could not live with myself if I did nothing to expose it,” he continued.
Stringer also told the Times that he did not sue Teresa Logan, who came forward in the wake of Kim’s allegations, since her 1992 charges of groping and unwanted kissing are beyond the statute of limitations.
Stringer stated that he did not recall Logan and the alleged incident, but he apologized “if I ever made her uncomfortable.”
Kim and her attorney Patricia Pastor did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
»Scott Stringer sues sex assault accuser, claiming charges derailed mayoral bid«