{"id":2323,"date":"2021-12-02T13:24:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T12:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/12\/02\/facebook-staffer-secretly-advised-andrew-cuomos-team-to-victim-shame-accuser-new-york-post\/"},"modified":"2021-12-02T13:24:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T12:24:22","slug":"facebook-staffer-secretly-advised-andrew-cuomos-team-to-victim-shame-accuser-new-york-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/12\/02\/facebook-staffer-secretly-advised-andrew-cuomos-team-to-victim-shame-accuser-new-york-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook staffer secretly advised Andrew Cuomo&#039;s team to &#039;victim shame&#039; accuser &#8211; New York Post"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p> \t\tThanks for contacting us. We&#039;ve received your submission.\t<\/p>\n<p>A Facebook manager who once worked for Andrew Cuomo secretly advised the disgraced ex-governor\u2019s team to \u201cvictim shame\u201d a sexual harassment accuser, according to text messages released this week by the New York Attorney General&#8217;s office.<br \/>The Facebook staffer then sought to cover up her involvement in advising the governor, the messages reveal.<br \/>\u201cLike I\u2019m nervous about FB knowing I\u2019ve been working on this etc etc.,&#8221; Dani Lever, the former Cuomo staffer, wrote in March about her new employer. The same evening as that message, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told Lever he&#8217;d gotten her name removed from a news story that was set to come out.<br \/>&#8220;Rich I could kiss you but it seems like bad form this week,&#8221; Lever replied as the governor was embroiled in allegations he&#8217;d acted inappropriately toward staffers.<br \/>Both were scrambling to help Cuomo respond to the allegations that ultimately led to his resignation. Lever, who has worked for Facebook since August 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/04\/facebook-exec-helped-cuomo-smear-sex-harassment-accuser-ag\/\">advised the then-governor\u2019s team for months<\/a>, according to the messages.<br \/>In one instance, Lever helped Cuomo aides decide how to smear Lindsey Boylan, a Cuomo staffer who <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/12\/13\/lindsey-boylan-alleges-cuomo-sexually-harassed-her-about-looks\/\">accused the governor of sexual harassment in December 2020<\/a>.<br \/>\u201cI think we can victim shame on the record,\u201d Lever wrote in a December 2020 message to Azzopardi and Melissa DeRosa, the governor&#8217;s No. 2. Lever also helped share Boylan&#8217;s personnel records with reporters, according to the attorney general.<br \/>Lever compared the &#8220;victim shaming&#8221; strategy to how President Joe Biden responded to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/03\/19\/tara-reade-blasts-biden-for-reaction-to-gov-cuomo-sex-harass-case\/\">sexual misconduct allegations<\/a> from former senate staffer Tara Reade during Biden&#8217;s 2020 campaign, the texts show.&nbsp;<br \/>\u201cThis was part of Biden\u2019s response by the way. Biden camp said \u2018this absolutely did not happen&#8217; then gave statement,\u2019\u201d Lever wrote.&nbsp;<br \/>A few days later, Lever quipped to Cuomo ally Linda Lacewell, \u201cI still don\u2019t know why we are talking to Gov lol. But I\u2019m here for the ride.\u201d&nbsp;<br \/>Lever&#8217;s work for Cuomo even included confronting a former Cuomo staffer for &#8220;liking&#8221; a tweet from an accuser named Charlotte Bennett.<br \/>\u201cYou liked Charlotte&#8217;s tweet? Call me,\u201d Lever said in a series of messages to the the ex-staffer, Andrew Ball, in February. \u201cWas that on purpose?? Can you unlike it.\u201d&nbsp;<br \/>Ball then replied \u201cdone\u201d and Lever responded with a heart emoji. Ball, who was no longer working for Cuomo, told investigators that he had un-liked the tweet because he wanted to preserve his relationship with the governor and his team.<br \/>The messages were unearthed as part of Attorney General Letitia James&#8217; investigation into sexual misconduct by Cuomo, which ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/10\/andrew-cuomo-resigns-as-governor-of-new-york\/\">led to his resignation in August<\/a>. <br \/>James has since periodically released material from her investigation in what Cuomo&#8217;s camp has sought to portray as a politically motivated bid to boost her <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/10\/29\/ag-letitia-james-announces-run-for-governor-of-new-york\/\">own campaign for governor<\/a>. <br \/>In addition to Lever&#8217;s messages, this week&#8217;s batch of documents also included a 449-page <a href=\"https:\/\/ag.ny.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2021.06.25_dani_lever_cleary_11.15.2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transcript<\/a> of a deposition James&#8217; investigators conducted with Lever in June, when they grilled her about her work for Cuomo and why she kept it secret from Facebook. <br \/>\u201cIt&#8217;s something that I was doing on my personal time, and I would have preferred Facebook not to know about it,&#8221; Lever said. <br \/>And while Lever testified that most of her behind-the-scenes work for Cuomo was done without Facebook\u2019s knowledge, she added that she had gotten permission from her Facebook supervisor to put her name on a February letter disputing Boylan\u2019s claim that <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/02\/24\/ex-aide-details-sexual-harassment-allegations-against-cuomo\/\">Cuomo suggested they play strip poker while on a taxpayer-funded jet in 2017<\/a>.&nbsp;<br \/>&#8220;I asked for permission,&#8221; Lever said. &#8220;She was okay with it.&#8221; <br \/>Ethics experts have raised concerns that Lever\u2019s work with Cuomo could <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/08\/facebook-mum-on-staffer-who-may-have-broken-law-amid-cuomo-harass-claims\/\">put Facebook on the wrong side of New York lobbying laws<\/a>, which ban registered lobbyists from giving gifts worth more than $15 to public officials. Facebook has been a registered lobbyist in New York since at least 2019, according to public records.&nbsp;<br \/>Since Lever works in communications, helping Cuomo navigate a public relations crisis constituted an illegal gift, according to David Grandeau, the former top ethics watchdog in New York state.&nbsp;<br \/>\u201cUsing your professional services and providing them to a public official for free of charge is a gift,\u201d Grandeau told The Post in September. \u201cIt\u2019s a misdemeanor for her and it\u2019s a misdemeanor for Facebook. It is a clear violation.\u201d<br \/>Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/10\/28\/facebook-changes-its-corporate-name-to-meta\/\">now the parent company for Facebook<\/a> &#8212; declined to comment on Lever\u2019s work for Cuomo and the potential lobbying law violation. Azzopardi declined to comment. Lever did not respond to a request for comment.<br \/>Lever is one of the few Cuomo confidantes who appear to have not faced professional consequences for their roles in the scandal. <br \/>Cuomo\u2019s brother <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/11\/30\/cnn-indefinitely-suspends-chris-cuomo-after-damning-ag-report\/\">Chris was suspended from his CNN show on Tuesday<\/a> after the attorney general released damning details about how he coordinated his brother\u2019s defense \u2014 and other confidantes including<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/06\/hrc-board-confirms-they-want-to-fire-president-alphonso-david\/\">&nbsp;Human Rights Campaign head Alphonso David<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/26\/tina-tchen-resigns-from-times-up-for-role-in-cuomo-harassment-scandal\/\">&nbsp;Time\u2019s Up executives Tina Tchen and Roberta Kaplan<\/a>, as well as a<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/16\/ex-cuomo-aides-who-helped-smear-accuser-leave-jobs-at-top-pr-firm\/\">&nbsp;duo of managing directors at public relations firm Kivvit<\/a>&nbsp;have all since quit their roles or been fired since James published her investigation in August.&nbsp;<br \/>After The Post initially reported on Lever&#8217;s role in Cuomo&#8217;s defense, lawmakers including Republican US Rep. Elise Stefanik and Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim called on Facebook to fire her. Kim also said that \u201cat a minimum\u201d Facebook should <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/20\/cuomo-aligned-pr-firm-must-face-audit-over-ludicrous-state-contracts-lawmaker-says\/\">hire an outside law firm to investigate Lever\u2019s role advising the governor<\/a> \u2014 a step that was taken by the Human Rights Campaign before the organization fired David. <br \/>Peter Ajemian, a former Cuomo staffer who helped the governor fight the sexual misconduct claims, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/15\/apple-quietly-hires-ex-cuomo-pr-chief\/\">scored a job at Apple over the summer<\/a>. The company has not commented on his role in the Cuomo scandal. <br \/>Share Selection<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/12\/01\/facebook-staffer-advised-andrew-cuomos-team-to-victim-shame-accuser\/\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks for contacting us. We&#039;ve received your submission. A Facebook manager who once worked for Andrew Cuomo secretly advised the disgraced ex-governor\u2019s team to \u201cvictim shame\u201d a sexual harassment accuser, according to text messages released this week by the New York Attorney General&#8217;s office.The Facebook staffer then sought to cover up her involvement in advising [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}