Alphonso David, now former president of The Human Rights Campaign, at a previous Black Tie Dinner in Dallas

Officials with The Human Rights Campaign announced late this evening (Monday, Sept. 6), and the LGBTQ rights organization has fired its president, Alphonso David, for cause. The move came following a joint meeting tonight of the boards of the Human Rights Campaign and its affiliated Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

According to a statement by board Co-chairs Morgan Cox and Jodie Patterson, David was fired “effective immediately, for violations of his contract with the Human Rights Campaign.” They said that yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 5), and today David, “released a statement that included significant untruths about the investigation and his status with the organization. At H.R.C., we are fighting to bring full equality and liberation to L.G.B.T.Q.+ people everywhere. That includes fighting on behalf of all victims of sexual harassment and assault.”

The organization had ordered an independent investigation after David had become entangled in the investigation into sexual misconduct allegations that forced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign

According to a article published shortly after 10 p.m. central time in the Los Angeles Blade, the newspaper’s White House reporter “Chris Johnson had reported earlier Monday that following a tweeted statement on Sunday from David declaring an independent review found no wrongdoing on his behalf in the scandal on sexual misconduct forcing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign. The board co-chairs have responded by disputing that account.”

In the Sunday tweet, David insisted that an independent review had been completed and found no wrongdoing on his part, and that even though the board co-chairs had asked him to consider resigning, he would not because “I have the support of too many of our employees, board members and stakeholders to walk away quietly into the night.”

HRC’s independent investigation was conducted by Sidley Austin LLP, but, as the LA Blade notes, “Legal experts had doubted the validity of a review by Sidley Austin on the basis it was among the legal firms agreeing in 2019 to help with the Human Rights Campaign entering into litigation to advance LGBTQ rights, an agreement David spearheaded upon taking the helm of the organization.”

The Los Angeles paper also points out that “The findings from New York State Attorney General Letitia James on Cuomo names David nearly a dozen times,” including indications that  “after his tenure as counselor to Cuomo, [David] kept the personnel file of an employee accusing the governor of sexual misconduct, then assisted in returning that file to Cuomo staffers seeking to leak it to the media in an attempt to discredit her.” David has said the so-called filed was a “memorandum on an internal employment matter” that he kept because he worked on it, and that he returned it when he left because he was legally required to do so.

The New York AG’s report also said David allegedly agreed to help find people who would sign a draft op-ed seeking to discredit a woman who accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct, although David wouldn’t sign the document himself. The op-ed was never published.

— Tammye Nash