FULL CIRCLE?

Kirsten Gillibrand Aide Quit After Staffer’s Sexual-Harassment Complaint Was Ignored: Report

Aide resigned in protest after her accusation against New York senator’s aide were ignored.

A female staffer for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand resigned in protest last July after her complaints about sexual harassment were ignored, Politico reports. The unidentified woman, who is in her mid-twenties, said she accused a more senior male staffer of inappropriate behavior. “I have offered my resignation because of how poorly the investigation and post-investigation was handled,” the woman said in an email to the New York Democrat, copying the senator’s general counsel and presidential campaign manager. “I trusted and leaned on this statement that you made: ‘You need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is OK. None of it is acceptable.’ Your office chose to go against your public belief that women shouldn’t accept sexual harassment in any form and portrayed my experience as a misinterpretation instead of what it actually was: harassment and ultimately, intimidation.” The aide, who Politico names as Abbas Malik, was initially allowed to keep his job, even amid reports that he joked about rape and made “crude, misogynistic remarks in the office about his female colleagues and potential female hires.” He was dismissed by the senator’s office late last week. Gillibrand has faced fury from some Democrats for her public call for Sen. Al Franken to resign over his own sexual-harassment scandal.

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