Embattled us-regionsus-regions Gov. andrew-cuomo” target=”_blank”>Andrew Cuomo<to their website – spent over $100,000 on legal services with the firm in 2019.
Additionally, Time’s Up Now, Inc., the other arm of the organization, paid $454,000 on legal fees according to its 2019 financial disclosure form on top of the over $719,000 paid to the firm in 2018.
Cuomo hired Paul Fishman, a partner at Arnold & Porter, to represent him earlier this year to handle the sexual harassment investigation into governor.
Since December, Cuomo has faced several harassment allegations against him by multiple women and just this week, New York Attorney General Letitia James concluded her investigation, saying he sexually harassed 11 women, including current and former state employees, from 2013 to 2020 in violation of state and federal law.
Time’s Up’s legal defense co-founders CEO Tina Tchen and Roberta Kaplan came under fire this week after it was revealed that they had worked with Cuomo’s office in drafting a letter that smeared one of his accusers, Lindsey Boylan, and “impugned her credibility,” New York Attorney General Leticia James said in her bombshell report published Tuesday.
Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, testified that the governor first drafted the letter by hand, though the governor denied having any memory of writing it and only said he participated in the drafting process.
According to James, DeRosa testified that she had reservations about the letter and thought it would backfire, so Cuomo instructed her to seek further input from Kaplan.
“According to Ms. DeRosa, Ms. Kaplan read the letter to the head of the advocacy group Times Up [Tchen], and both of them allegedly suggested that, without the statements about Ms. Boylan’s interactions with male colleagues, the letter was fine,” James said in her report.
“Ms. DeRosa reported back to the Governor that Ms. Kaplan and the head of Times Up thought the letter was okay with some changes, as did [Cuomo ally Steve] Cohen, but everyone else thought it was a bad idea.”
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James’ report said the letter was never made public after Cuomo’s team failed to convince anyone to sign it.
Time’s Up did not provide comment to Fox News. Cuomo’s office did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment regarding hiring the same legal counsel as Time’s Up.
Cuomo is now facing widespread, bipartisan calls to resign, including from President Biden.
Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
Houston Keene is a reporter for Fox News Digital. You can find him on Twitter at @HoustonKeene.
