Update: Cuomo has finally resigned.

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Andrew Cuomo’s perilous legal and political situation has repercussions bigger than just “will this bitch resign from office or what.” It turns out that last fall, as Cuomo’s victims began coming out and telling their stories, Gov. Cuomo sought legal and PR advice from officials at Time’s Up, the organization which is supposed to be dedicated to standing up for victims of sexual harassment and abuse by powerful predators like Andrew Cuomo. It seems that New York AG Letitia James’ investigation into Cuomo’s serial sexual harassment uncovered his “help” from two Time’s Up officials. One of the Time’s Up people has already stepped down from the organization:

A group of sexual assault survivors and victims, current and former Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund clients and former Time’s Up staffers has written an open letter to the gender rights organization’s board accusing the group of prioritizing “proximity to power over mission” in regard to its relationship with New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The letter was sparked by the revelation in the Aug. 3 New York Attorney General’s report that Cuomo’s office sought advice from Time’s Up chief Tina Tchen and Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund co-founder Roberta Kaplan on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations. Kaplan resigned from the Time’s Up board on Monday morning.

“I was saddened but not shocked [by the Cuomo revelation],” says Lauren Weingarten, who settled a sexual harassment case against CBS in January with the assistance of lawyers paid for by the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. “We come to Time’s Up when we’re at our most vulnerable and they clearly don’t have the backs of survivors.”

In interviews, signers of the letter point to other examples of Time’s Up aligning with powerful people over survivors, such as the group’s backing of major donor Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey dropped out as producer of the documentary about Russell Simmons accusers, On the Record, and the organization’s handling of allegations that co-founder and board member Esther Choo failed to report complaints of sexual harassment made by a co-worker at Oregon Health & Science University.

The letter calls for a third party investigation “illustrating the full extent to which Time’s Up board members and staff members have been approached by, offered advice to, or are representing perpetrators of harm” and a return of donations “by individuals and corporations that have active allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault, or are litigating in opposition to survivors.” The signers are also asking Time’s Up to supply detailed budgets and to form a survivor advisory council.

According to the report from Attorney General Letitia James, Cuomo asked an aide to seek Kaplan’s input on a letter his office drafted to rebut claims of sexual harassment leveled by former aide Lindsay Boylan. “Ms. Kaplan read the letter to the head of the advocacy group Times Up [sic], and both of them allegedly suggested that, without the statements about Ms. Boylan’s interactions with male colleagues, the letter was fine,” according to page 109 of the report. “[Cuomo aide Melissa] DeRosa reported back to the Governor that Ms. Kaplan and the head of Time’s Up thought the letter was okay with some changes, as did [Cuomo ally Steven] Cohen, but everyone else thought it was a bad idea.” (DeRosa resigned Sunday night).

[From THR]

THR has even more details about why there’s so much angst and rage within Time’s Up because of Kaplan and Tchen’s lies about what they actually did for Cuomo last fall. They told staff members that those meetings were mostly about legislation to protect survivors of rape and abuse, and that maybe Cuomo just gave them a vague heads up that he was going to wage a PR campaign to discredit the eleven women whom he sexually harassed. In reality, we had officials from Time’s Up signing off on a statement which smeared one of Cuomo’s victims as a liar.

If we’re being honest, Time’s Up always had the feel of an astroturf political organization, with hidden corporate interests basically tossing some money at a “good cause” but mostly using the group as a cover or a rubber stamp for bad actions. While Time’s Up has done some good – the legal defense fund for survivors and victims is great – there were always some pretty obvious flaws in how they operated. At least this stuff is happening out in the open though.

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