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Felicia Sonmez
National Journalist of the Washington Post Political Press Team
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (DN.Y.), presidential candidate of 2020 and the main congressional voice on the fight against sexual misconduct, defended on Monday the treatment of her accusations of sexual harassment against a former assistant who Was not fired before a media contacted the senator's office last month.
Gillibrand's office had been investigating allegations about the assistant, Abbas Malik, last year. But Malik had kept his job until last week. He was fired after Politico journalists contacted Gillibrand's office with information from two witnesses that the senator's staff had not interviewed before, despite pressing requests from the woman who had made the initial charges.
Gillibrand's office opened a new investigation and sacked Malik the following week.
Gillibrand told reporters outside the Capitol Monday night that she did not regret how her office had handled the case.
"As in all cases, we take these types of allegations very seriously," said Gillibrand.
She told reporters that her staff had conducted a "thorough and professional investigation" last year, during which they had been able to substantiate Malik's disparaging claims, but "could not substantiate their allegations of sexual harassment ".
Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) will speak in an interview with Fox News on February 25. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP)
During this investigation, Gillibrand stated that her office "interviewed all current employees with relevant information".
Neither the senator nor her spokesperson explained why the Gillibrand staff had failed to contact the two witnesses who had been recommended to them by the initial accuser. Both witnesses were former employees of Gillibrand's office.
The Washington Post attempted to contact Malik for comments via his email to the Senate Monday night, but received no response.
In an interview with Politico, the accuser said that she felt disappointed by the way Gillibrand's office handled her accusations.
"When I had the courage to talk about my harasser, her office depreciated and treated me as a disadvantage," she said. "She kept a stalker in her staff until it was politically untenable for her."
The woman told Politico that Malik, who was Gillibrand's driver and military advisor, had started making unwanted and increasingly aggressive advances after receiving a promotion in July that placed him in a supervisory position. She also stated that he had frequently made rude and inappropriate remarks about women, including female staff from Gillibrand's office.
After reporting the alleged harassment and commencing an investigation at Gillibrand's office, Malik was notified and his promotion was revoked. The woman then claimed to have retaliated against her by not informing her of the changes made to Gillibrand's program, as he had done previously.
The woman subsequently resigned to protest Gillibrand's handling of her charges and the follow-up to the investigation, in which one of Gillibrand's senior aides reportedly told the woman that she too had committed offenses punishable by criminal penalties.
Several other former employees told Politico that Malik often made inappropriate comments; One of the former employees that Gillibrand's office did not contact said that he had already told her that another woman "could not be fucked unless she was raped".
In the Senate, Gillibrand has carved a reputation for being at the forefront of efforts to combat sexual misconduct, particularly with regard to sexual assaults perpetrated in the past. 39; army. During a Senate hearing on the issue last week, she strongly defended its longstanding position that such cases should be handled outside the military chain of command.
"When we asked the members of the service, what would you do? What would you bring back? They overwhelmingly replied, "If you removed it from the chain of command," said Gillibrand at the hearing, noting that the author was often a member of the chain of command.
She was also the first senator to call for Senator Al Franken's resignation in 2017 after eight women accused the Minnesota Democrat of fumbling or forcibly kissing him. Franken denied some of the allegations and said that he remembered the others "very differently."
Some Democratic donors and other left-wing parties have criticized Gillibrand for asking Franken to resign, while others have argued that such critics use Gillibrand as a scapegoat for Franken's own actions.
A few days after the start of his presidential campaign in January, Gillibrand defended his call for Franken to resign, telling reporters: "I will defend what I believe in, especially when it will be difficult."
"With Senator Franken, it is sad for many people, but after eight allegations of sexual harassment and credible and credible accusations at the time, I simply could not be silent," she said.
Elise Viebeck contributed to this report.
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