Thread by @jbendery

NEW: The Human Rights Campaign just hired an outside law firm to investigate whether its president, Alphonso David, inappropriately helped New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo push back against sexual harassment allegations. huffpost.com/entry/human-ri…

HRC's investigation into its own president will 1) last no more than 30 days and 2) look at whether David's efforts to help Cuomo push back against harassment allegations "aligned with HRC’s mission and values ... [and] professional and ethics standards." huffpost.com/entry/human-ri…

Interesting suspicious weirdness going on here.

HRC's board has been publicly standing by David, but also noted to staff this morning that "HRC’s employees, supporters, board members and partners have raised questions about the appropriateness" of David's actions.

So what were David's actions? Here is what the NY AG report says about the HRC president:

1) He provided a confidential file to Cuomo’s top aides that they used to discredit one of his accusers, Lindsey Boylan.

(David says he was legally obligated to provide the file.)

2) He was involved in discussions about secretly recording a convo between a former Cuomo staffer and another Cuomo accuser, Kaitlin.

(David says this is not true and that he was contacted about this but said he didn't know her.)

3) He initially declined to sign onto a letter aimed at discrediting Boylan and attacking her claims as political, but later told a Cuomo aide he would sign the letter “if we need him.”

(David says he never agreed to sign any iteration of the letter.)

4) He agreed to reach out to women who previously worked for Cuomo to try to get them to sign onto a statement saying positive things about the governor.

(I did not hear David give a clear response to this in the audio recording I got of last week's call with HRC staff.)

Instead, David said things like this about being approached by Cuomo aides:

"I never agreed to sign a letter."

"But I said I was more than happy to state what my experience was in the office."

"I was asked if I would talk about my experiences in the office. I said sure."

HRC's legal news comes days after staffers told David in a tense, 90-minute call that he needs to quit and that his ties to Cuomo's actions will hurt HRC's brand.

"We will band together and take this to the board to request your resignation. huffpost.com/entry/human-ri…

Hard not to notice the contrast of HRC standing by David while also investigating his role in helping Cuomo discredit his accusers ... just as NYT reports that Roberta Kaplan has quit Times Up over her role in helping Cuomo discredit one of his accusers.

Here's more on Roberta Kaplan, chair of Time's Up and co-founder of its legal defense fund, resigning today over her involvement in an effort to discredit a woman who had accused Cuomo of sexual harassment. huffpost.com/entry/roberta-…

As for HRC's decision to do its own investigation into David's actions, what is left to "investigate" about his role in helping Cuomo discredit his accusers that isn't already spelled out in the NY AG report?

The NY AG investigated the hell outta this mess.

Conversations with 179 people and more than 74,000 pieces of evidence, including emails, texts, photos and audio files.