Time’s Up leader resigns after fallout over Cuomo ties

NEW YORK — Time’s Up leader Roberta Kaplan resigns over fallout from her work advising New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration, when the first allegations of sexual harassment were made against him last year.

Kaplan cites her work counseling the administration last winter and her more recent legal work representing Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to Cuomo who resigned yesterday, nearly a week after a report by the state attorney general concluded that the governor had sexually harassed 11 women.

“I therefore have reluctantly come to the conclusion that an active law practice is no longer compatible with serving on the Board at Time’s Up at this time and I hereby resign,” Kaplan writes in her resignation letter, according to The New York Times.

Messages were sent to Kaplan requesting comment on her resignation.

Kaplan was the chair of the Board of Directors of Time’s Up and cofounder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which aids women who have experienced sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign says it is launching an internal investigation over the inclusion of the advocacy organization’s leader, Alphonso David, in the attorney general’s report.

“Over the past several days, HRC’s employees, supporters, board members and partners have raised questions about the appropriateness of Alphonso David’s actions and whether they align with HRC’s decades’ long mission of fighting for equality and justice for all.”

Both Kaplan and David, a former legal counsel for the governor, were consulted by the Cuomo administration when he was first accused of harassment by a former economic development adviser, Lindsey Boylan.