Former City Comptroller Scott Stringer claims the bombshell sex assault allegations that derailed his 2021 mayoral campaign were part of a dirty tricks operation hatched by political operatives working for businessman Andrew Yang.
Stringer, who is suing his accuser Jean Kim for defamation, claimed that a political consultant working for Yang and his failed mayoral campaign even presented him with a mea culpa last year, according to court documents.
He is now seeking to add bigwig consulting firm Tusk Strategies and its eponymous owner Bradley Tusk to his lawsuit against Kim, the Manhattan Supreme Court filings show.
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Stringer claims that last March, the unnamed Yang campaign consultant told him — after reading a New York Times story about the #MeToo movement — that “Tusk manufactured each of the defamatory statements” that upended his own campaign.
The former comptroller claims that he “vetted the information [the consultant] provided to confirm its accuracy,” according to the court docs.
Stringer also noted his lawyers attempted to resolve his claims with Tusk directly, which failed.
A lawyer representing Kim in April 2021 leveled allegations that Stringer “groped her, repeatedly touched her sexually without her consent [and] made multiple sexual advances toward her which she rejected.”
Kim also held a news conference at which she accused Stringer of repeatedly asking, “Why won’t you f–k me?” while she was an unpaid intern on his 2001 campaign for public advocate.
Shortly before the allegations surfaced, a NY1/Ipsos poll showed Stringer in third place ahead of the Democratic mayoral primary, with 11% of likely voters saying he was their first pick. About two weeks after Kim’s news conference, that number dropped to 9%.
On Election Day, Stringer wound up with just 5.5% of the first-round votes, putting him in fifth place before he was eliminated in the ranked-choice contest that was won by Mayor Eric Adams.
His campaign for the Democratic nomination in last year’s mayoral primary also failed to pick up steam.
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