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Before the November 8 election, Republicans are pressuring Democratic colleagues to probe state attorney general Letitia James for concealing complaints of sexual harassment by a longstanding senior staffer.
“The Albany marsh is as foul as ever. Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor stated, “New Yorkers have a right to know if the state’s chief law enforcement official engaged in sexual harassment, covered it up, or delayed addressing it in order to win an election” (R-Fishkill).
According to The New York Times, James’ Chief of Staff Ibrahim Khan quit last week after the law firm Littler Mendelson confirmed complaints of unwanted kissing and groping weeks before the election.
James has not yet made a public statement about Khan’s departure, but her staff has asserted that the incumbent Democrat followed correct protocols in dealing with Khan, whose links to her date back to her tenure as New York City public advocate.
Monday, the office of James provided no reaction.
“The Attorney General’s Office has mechanisms in place to examine allegations of impropriety properly. The office considers these problems with the highest care and this circumstance is no different. “An objective, impartial inquiry was completed, and the employee has since resigned,” Delaney Kempner, a spokesperson for the Attorney General, stated earlier.
But concerns remain about how James’ office recruited Littler Mendelson, which employs a former assistant attorney general, as well as the extent to which James would have been aware of any other disturbing behavior by Khan before recent charges by two women.
Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R-Pulaski) stopped short of joining their calls, but he did accuse James of “deliberately” suppressing the claims against Khan before to Khan’s unexpectedly close 53% to 44% victory over unknown and mostly underfunded Republican Michael Henry.
James also declined to partake in any pre-election debates with Henry.
The disclosures signal an ironic turn for James, according to Barclay, who recalled how she developed her name last year while publishing a report about alleged sexual harassment and misbehavior by disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has denied wrongdoing.
“This cannot wait till the January reconvening of the state legislature. The State Assembly Judiciary Committee must start a formal inquiry at once into what Attorney General James know, when she knew it, and why that information was hidden from the public,” Assemblyman Colin Schmitt (R-New Windsor) stated Sunday.
Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Garden City) and state Senator Thomas O’Mara (R-Elmira), who is asking colleagues in his chamber to initiate their own investigations, are also calling for an investigation.
O’Mara stated, “This brings into doubt her suitability for the position.”
The occurrence of sexual harassment in any government job should terrify every New Yorker, he continued.
James overcame Republican Michael Henry 53% to 44.5% to earn a second term in office.
AP
“It appears that the attorney general’s office investigated the governor for the same violations being investigated by her own office’s committee. “It is difficult to equal this degree of hypocrisy,” remarked Barclay.
Cuomo’s own retirement in August 2021 was predicted by Republican requests for probes, subsequently followed by an Assembly impeachment proceedings, into alleged wrongdoing involving sexual harassment and a cover-up of COVID-19 fatalities among nursing facility patients.
Monday, neither Assembly Judiciary Chair Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) nor Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) provided quick reaction.
Republicans continue to hold out hope that James’s colleagues on the other side of the aisle will interrogate her in the near future, despite the fact that James is now feeling the heat.
“We are able to get the Judiciary Committee involved. I’m sure they’ve bored since the Cuomo resignation!” Ra stated Monday.
»What did Tish know and when? : NY GOP wants AG James to be investigated for’sex harassment’«