Human Rights Campaign Fires President Alphonso David

Following a report that found he helped former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo respond to sexual misconduct allegations, the Human Rights Campaign has fired Alphonso David as its president.

The exit was met with contention, as both sides claim the other is spreading false information.

David’s Twitter account posted an update Monday night, which concluded noting that HRC should “expect a legal challenge.”

“After I demanded truth and transparency, the HRC board co-chairs who should stand for human rights elected to hid in the darkness. They unjustly provided notice of termination to me in order to end my fight for the integrity of the review process and for what is right … Now that they are being called to task, they tried to shut me up. As a Black, gay man who has spent his whole life fighting for civil and human rights, they cannot shut me up,” the text screenshot reads.

In the vote on David’s firing, two people abstained, but no one on the HRC’s two governing board voted against it, according to a source who spoke with NPR.

David was hired as the HRC president two years ago, but the organization says that he violated its conflict of interest policies and its mission by helping Cuomo’s team respond to sexual harassment allegations last year. HRC learned of David’s actions and involvement in the official Cuomo investigation after New York Attorney General Letitia James released the results of her inquiry last month.

The report further indicates David played a key role in Cuomo’s campaign to discredit the women accusing Cuomo of harassment. His name appears about three dozen times in the report, which concluded Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women and prompted the former governor’s resignation.

Before David took his position as president of HRC, he was a lawyer for years at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ organization. After that, he worked for the then-Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, and he later worked in the governor’s cabinet.

Some of the references of David in the report refer to communications he had with the governor’s staff after he became HRC’s president. According the the report, David took files related to Lindsey Boylan, one of Cuomo’s accusers, after leaving his state government post. David sent the files to a top Cuomo advisor in December, days after Boylan said in a tweet Cuomo was “one of the biggest abusers of all time,” according to the report, and after Boylan accused Cuomo of sexual harassment days later, the files were leaked to multiple media outlets in an attempt to undercut Boylan’s credibility. The report says the files were labeled as being privileged and confidential.

David joined those publicly calling for Cuomo’s resignation following the report’s release, defending himself from critics saying he was obligated to hand over documents about Boylan to the governor’s administrators.

David insists he did nothing wrong and has voiced his support for HRC’s move to hire a law firm to conduct an independent inquiry into his involved with Cuomo’s office. David says that his attorneys had not been in the process of negotiating his exit, which he says HRC falsely suggested.

HRC says David’s termination is effective immediately and Chief Operating Officer Jodi Madison will lead the group while they search for a new, permanent leader.

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