Gov. Kathy Hochul does not support calls for a probe of the New York attorney general’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against her top aide Ibrahim Khan despite accusations AG Letitia James sat on the news for two months as she ran for reelection.
“We must be clear in condemning sexual harassment, wherever it arises, there needs to be accountability and my understanding is that steps were taken toward that,” Hochul told reporters in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Hochul added she would not speculate on why James, the top law enforcement officer in the state, remained mum on the brewing scandal ahead of her 53% to 44.5% win over Republican Michael Henry last month.
Her comments came just hours before former AG employee Sofia Quintanar came forward for the first time detailing how Khan reportedly harassed her.
“I find it just appalling to see how the office handled this publicly, Quintanar, 33, told the New York Times.
Khan resigned last week as James’ chief of staff after an outside law firm hired by James concluded that he sexually harassed a former employee of the attorney general, whose office has claimed she followed proper procedures.
But a growing list of Republicans are calling for probes, whether by the Legislature or a special prosecutor appointed by Hochul, to probe whether James allowed sexual harassment to flourish under her nose.
And some of them renewed their calls for an investigation Wednesday soon after the release of the bombshell report.
“We have a duty as a legislature to investigate whether laws and proper procedures were followed,” Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Garden City) said. “Sexual harassment has been far too common in state government and the acts of the legislature in recent years will be toothless if we aren’t making sure they are followed.”
Henry commended Quintanar for being “brave” while unleashing a fresh round of criticism on James.
“Letitia James had a duty to call police by law when she learned that Ibrahim Khan groped her staff members. Instead she chose to protect herself,” he said.
Documents released by James’ office this week confirm she knew about the accusations against Khan by Oct. 2.
He began working remotely the next day ahead of formally quitting his job on Nov. 22 — two weeks after James won reelection in the closer-than-expected race.
James claimed she buried the accusations before the election out of consideration for the women accusing Khan of wrongdoing in her first public remarks since his downfall.
“It was a private investigation and it’s important we protect the privacy of the individuals,” she said when confronted Wednesday morning by a Post reporter.
But critics question whether James might have intentionally turned a blind eye to misbehavior by her trusted lieutenant, who began working for James while she served as New York City public advocate.
“It appears the Attorney General’s Office was investigating the governor for the same offenses being committed within her own office. It’s tough to match this level of hypocrisy,” Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R-Pulaski) said Monday of her bombshell 2021 report about alleged sexual misconduct by disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
James asserted Wednesday that investigating Khan required greater secrecy because it was a workplace investigation versus a public probe of an elected official that required sign off from the Governor’s Office.
“We’re protecting the rights of individuals and it’s important to understand this was a private investigation, which is separate and apart from the investigation we did into the former governor — which was a governmental investigation and a lawful investigation pursuant to a referral,” she said.
A past allegation of sexual assault against Khan — who has denied any wrongdoing — suggests a history of misbehavior that long predates the 2022 election cycle.
Angel DuBose has alleged that Khan drugged and sexually assaulted her during a December 2014 holiday party held in Manhattan by James’ office while they worked in the Office of the Public Advocate, The Post exclusively revealed in 2017.
His accuser told a supervisor in January 2015 about the incident and filed a complaint with the state Division of Human Rights but prosecutors ultimately declined to press charges.
The city Department of Investigation reportedly “reviewed and closed this matter” as well and questions about whether DuBose had specifically named Khan as her attacker led The Post to remove the article from its website.
That incident and the latest sexual harassment accusations against Khan have led to calls for an investigation, but Hochul expressed satisfaction Wednesday with how James has handled everything based on details published by the media over the past week.
“There’s a lot of the situation that’s not very clear, but it seems to me based on public reports, which is all I know, that steps were taken to investigate this and pursue this and the person is no longer in the position they were once in,” Hochul said.
