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- The Human Rights Campaign board ousted its president, Alphonso David, on Sunday.
- David is now threatening a "legal challenge" to what he argues was an unjust dismissal.
- David advised Cuomo as an attorney, but did not disclose that work to his employer, per The Times.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
After the board of the Human Rights Campaign fired him as president over the weekend, Alphonso David is threatening to take legal action.
David, 50, was the first civil rights attorney and the first person of color to lead the organization.
His standing within the HRC began to turn when he was mentioned in New York Attorney General Letitia James's bombshell 165-page report corroborating allegations of sexual harassment from 11 women against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
David advised Cuomo as an attorney, but did not disclose that work to his employer, with an HRC report on his role in the Cuomo scandal finding that he had a conflict of interest, according to The New York Times.
David advised the Cuomo legal team on how to discredit an accuser by drafting a letter that would undermine her credibility, the report found. David also distributed a memo on the accuser's work history to Cuomo staff, and encouraged them to sign onto the letter even though he claimed he would not do so himself.
Over the weekend, before he was fired, David refused to resign and claimed the HRC's investigation into the Cuomo scandal found no wrongdoing on his part and was complete, despite the HRC contradicting him and saying the report was not finished yet, according to The Washington Post.
At midnight on Monday morning, David responded to his dismissal with a screenshot statement on Twitter.
-Alphonso David (@AlphonsoDavid) September 7, 2021
"As a Black, gay man who has spent his whole life fighting for civil and human rights, they cannot shut me up," he wrote. "Expect a legal challenge."
David, like other Cuomo allies, has continued to deny any wrongdoing in the sexual harassment scandal.
Other prominent figures close to Cuomo have left their jobs in the wake of several scandals that ultimately brought the governor down.
Roberta Kaplan stepped down as chairwoman of Time's Up, the legal defense fund that gained prominence during the height of the #MeToo movement, for helping advise Cuomo on how to respond to the harassment allegations.
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