Last week, the chief of staff for New York attorney general Letitia James resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. Ibrahim Khan was described by the NY Times as “one of Ms. James’s closest political advisers for nearly a decade.” Today, the Times has a follow up to that story. One of Khan’s accusers claims that James attempted to protect Khan from the harassment allegations.
The woman, Sofia Quintanar, a former aide to Ms. James, said in an interview that she decided to come forward because she believed that the attorney general was protecting her longtime chief of staff, Ibrahim Khan, and withholding any public finding of wrongdoing rather than aggressively pursuing the investigation.
“I find it just appalling to see how the office handled this publicly,” Ms. Quintanar, 33, told The New York Times in her first public interview about her interaction with Mr. Khan. She said that she decided to come forward because she believed that Ms. James’s office took more care to protect Mr. Khan than the women who accused him of abuse, allowing him to quietly submit his resignation in November with his reputation intact.
The incident with Khan happened last year outside a bar where a fundraiser was taking place. Quintanar, who was a deputy press secretary in James’ office, had left her to start her own political consulting business. But she decided to attend a fundraiser in order to network. At the bar she ran into Khan and they had drinks and talked about James’ run for governor. Then they decided to go outside when the bar became too noisy.
That’s where Ms. Quintanar said that Mr. Khan aggressively grabbed her by her shoulder, pulled her close and “stuck his tongue down my throat.”
“I don’t even know how to describe the feeling, honestly, just disappointment in someone that I considered a respected boss, a former respected boss who just months ago, the Cuomo stuff had just happened to,” Ms. Quintanar said. “And I was just in pure shock. We just went through all of this with someone else. How can you think this was OK?”
Ms. Quintanar said she confronted Mr. Khan, a married father, about the unwelcome kiss before heading back into the bar. Ms. Bettys said she noticed that Ms. Quintanar seemed upset when she returned and that Mr. Khan kept trying to speak into Ms. Quintanar’s ear.
Ms. Bettys and Ms. Quintanar soon left the bar, and Ms. Quintanar immediately told Ms. Bettys what had happened.
For several months, Quintanar didn’t tell anyone else what had happened. Then she decided to confide in a friend who also worked in the AG’s office with Khan. That friend immediately started to cry and revealed that she had also been groped and kissed by Khan.
Quintanar was disappointed that AG James announced an external investigation into the matter had concluded without explaining what it had found. Instead James announced that Khan had resigned. Quintanar was told that the investigation had in fact substantiated her claims but somehow that part wasn’t mentioned in the public statement. “Me and the other victims, we deserve the same vindication that was given to these other victims that she stood up for,” Quintanar said.
All of this is pretty remarkable given James’ involvement in pursuing the allegations against former Gov. Cuomo. She certainly had no hesitation in revealing the results of that investigation.
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