Jean Kim said in an interview that Mr. Stringer, a Democratic candidate for mayor, had abused a position of power to make unwanted advances. He has denied her allegations.
He was an ambitious state assemblyman and a rising star in the liberal hothouse of Upper West Side politics. She was a New York newcomer, born in South Korea, raised in Ohio and eager to break into the city’s thriving Democratic scene.
The two — Scott M. Stringer and Jean Kim — would eventually play central roles in this year’s New York City mayor’s race. But their paths first intersected more than 20 years ago, initially at political events, and then more intensely as Mr. Stringer ran an unsuccessful campaign for public advocate in 2001.
That summer and fall, Ms. Kim, working unpaid on his campaign, regularly attended Mr. Stringer’s events. They socialized as well, gathering over drinks with other young activists at Upper West Side bars like Merchants. On at least one occasion, there was a kiss.
On this much, Mr. Stringer and Ms. Kim largely agree. But their accounts of the nature of their relationship diverge sharply from there, as do their views of the power dynamics at play. The clashing narratives have thrown Mr. Stringer’s mayoral campaign into crisis after Ms. Kim accused him of sexual misconduct, sapping his momentum and driving many of his allies away.
To Mr. Stringer, Ms. Kim was a peer with whom he had an “on-and-off” consensual relationship that spanned four to five months. At the time, he was 41. Ms. Kim was 30. They were both unmarried.
To Ms. Kim, who says she was intensely involved with Mr. Stringer’s campaign while trying to forge her own path in politics, he was a mentor who made unwanted advances.
In an interview at her Manhattan apartment last week, Ms. Kim described three instances during the campaign of unwanted touching in taxis, and she said Mr. Stringer had kissed her and groped her at a bar without her consent, an account she also shared with Gothamist.
“He constantly reminded me of his power by saying things like, ‘You want me to make a phone call for you to change your life,’ ‘You want me to make you the first Asian district leader,’” Ms. Kim said. “There was no doubt in my mind that he was powerful and he could make or break me.”
Mr. Stringer has denied making unwanted sexual advances and he said he never suggested he could give her that political position. He also objected to the idea that he had significant power over Ms. Kim.
“Virtually every one of my friends volunteered on the campaign,” Mr. Stringer, who declined an interview request, said in a statement. “There was no sense in which they were subordinates. While I obviously can’t speak to how any individual felt, I don’t think most people who were part of our social circle would say there was a power dynamic at play.”
Presented with Ms. Kim’s description of unwanted advances, Mr. Stringer said, “The way Jean describes our interactions, and what she leaves out, amounts to a fundamental distortion of what happened.”
He offered a detailed account of what he has said was a consensual relationship.
“I would estimate that on at least a dozen occasions over four to five months, an evening out ended with us kissing,” he said. “Sometimes the kissing was initiated by Jean and sometimes it was initiated by me.”
Ms. Kim later said through her lawyer that Mr. Stringer’s account was “absolutely false,” and that she “certainly never initiated a kiss or any physical contact of any kind” with Mr. Stringer.
Her lawyer, Patricia Pastor, said she filed a complaint with the New York attorney general’s office, alleging sexual abuse and sexual harassment.
“I was never attracted to Stringer in the least,” Ms. Kim said. “He was an older man that I looked up to as a trusted mentor.”
For nearly two decades, Ms. Kim largely kept her account of their interactions to herself. But as Mr. Stringer entered the final stretch of the race, appearing on her television often, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo faced his own allegations of sexual misconduct, she decided to go public with her story, she said.
When Mr. Stringer called for Mr. Cuomo to resign, Ms. Kim said she saw it as hypocritical. And when Mr. Stringer’s allies criticized Andrew Yang, a rival mayoral candidate, for “laughing at a misogynistic joke,” she said, “I felt triggered and thought about the abuse I endured.”
Ms. Kim said she had not decided whom she was supporting for mayor.
Mr. Stringer, Ms. Kim and around a half-dozen people involved in the 2001 race agree that the two shared overlapping social circles and that she actively supported his campaign.
Beyond that, it may never be possible to know the full picture of the events of that year. Ms. Kim has not identified anyone from that time who could corroborate her version of events, and she indicated that she had no records from then regarding her allegations.
In an interview on Saturday, Ms. Kim’s sister, Susan, said she recalled that at some point in 2001, Jean Kim became “withdrawn and stressed” after having previously been “very enthusiastic” about Mr. Stringer’s campaign.
The next year, Susan Kim said, her sister indicated more clearly that she wanted to put distance between herself and Mr. Stringer and their shared political club, though she acknowledged that her sister “occasionally went to certain events after that.”
“She did not share any specific details until fairly recently,” Susan Kim, 45, a lawyer in Manhattan, said. “We’re from an Asian family. It’s kind of like a taboo topic for us. So we didn’t really feel comfortable talking about those things.”
Ms. Kim said she had not told anyone in detail about her account until she disclosed it to her fiancé, Anthony Caifano, after a brusque encounter with Mr. Stringer following his successful 2013 run for city comptroller. (Mr. Caifano, who attended the interview, confirmed the account. Ms. Pastor also attended.)
Experts say there are many reasons that victims of unwanted sexual advances may not share their stories until years later, if ever.
Mr. Stringer’s campaign noted that several apparent discrepancies in Ms. Kim’s account have emerged since she and Ms. Pastor presented the allegations at an April 28 news conference. Such inconsistencies do not prove or disprove whether there was a consensual relationship, but Mr. Stringer’s allies argue that they raise broader doubts about Ms. Kim’s credibility.
Ms. Kim and Ms. Pastor have described Ms. Kim as an “unpaid intern,” a term that can conjure an image of a student, or someone just out of college, Mr. Stringer’s allies note. But Mr. Stringer’s team and others who were directly involved in the race dispute that characterization, saying Ms. Kim was a volunteer.
In her initial statement, Ms. Kim said Mr. Stringer’s advances had made her so uncomfortable that she decided to move, and to leave the Community Free Democrats, the Upper West Side political club in which they were both active.
But she appeared to be listed as a vice president of the club in 2002, which Ms. Pastor did not directly dispute, and she listed herself as a club member on her résumé as late as 2013, as The Intercept has reported.
Records show that she also continued to make relatively modest political contributions to Mr. Stringer long after the incidents allegedly occurred. Mr. Stringer’s campaign produced an email showing her asking if she could “be helpful” on his 2013 comptroller campaign as she passed along her résumé.
Publicly and privately, supporters of Mr. Stringer who were involved in city politics at that time have questioned Ms. Kim’s description of his influence over his social circle.
“The thing about these groups, there was no hierarchy, there was no power dynamic,” said Mike McGuire, a labor official who is part of a coalition that has endorsed Mr. Stringer. “We were all colleagues, friends, tied into the same business. We all hung around together.”
Ms. Kim said she had maintained ties to Mr. Stringer’s orbit because she wanted to build her career, and could not afford to alienate him. After years working in lobbying, Ms. Kim said she is shifting out of the profession and weighing other interests, including activism and stand-up comedy.
“This is not a pleasant experience for me,” Ms. Kim said of her decision to make the allegations public now. “I hope to God I don’t have to move out of New York City because of it.”
Ms. Kim moved to New York in 1998, she said. She later found a full-time job in public relations and threw herself into the Community Free Democrats.
Ms. Pastor said on April 28 that Ms. Kim had been introduced to Mr. Stringer by Eric T. Schneiderman, another club member, whom she met in 2001. He later became New York’s attorney general and resigned after being accused of assault by several women.
Ms. Kim later suggested the association was less direct: She said that she had “chatted” with Mr. Schneiderman about her interest in politics in 1998. He directed her to the Community Free Democrats and suggested she seek out Mr. Stringer, she said.
Ms. Kim grew animated during the interview while describing a conversation with Mr. Stringer in early 2001 in which, she said, he sketched out an expansive role for her. In addition to her full-time job, she said, she spent about 35 hours a week helping out on the campaign, including traveling to events with Mr. Stringer.
“I was just really like, ‘Oh my God, I just hit the jackpot,’” she said. “For somebody who doesn’t know anybody, and now here he is taking me under his wing.”
Mr. Stringer said in his statement that there had been no such offer.
“Even I wasn’t out campaigning for 35 hours a week — most days, I was holed up in a room for hours on end raising money,” said Mr. Stringer, who, as a state lawmaker, was also traveling between New York City and Albany in 2001.
In a cab that summer, Ms. Kim said, Mr. Stringer grazed her knee, suggesting he did so with his hand. Given the adrenaline of the campaign, she brushed off the episode. It happened again a few weeks later as they shared another cab. This time, his hand on her leg was “a little bit more insistent,” and she shifted away, she said.
New York’s primaries in 2001 were set for Sept. 11. About a week before, Ms. Kim said, she was at a bar — she believes it was Merchants — with Mr. Stringer and others from their political circle. She and Mr. Stringer were the last to leave. They were at the bar facing each other, she said, when Mr. Stringer kissed her. Ms. Kim tensed up. Then, she said, he kissed her again, this time more passionately.
“The fact that I didn’t slap him away, I think he just took that as indication that it was OK,” she said. Then, she said, he “took his hand, and he put it down, like, the back of my pants.”
Ms. Kim described being both “horrified” and fearful of alienating Mr. Stringer. She said she sought to turn the conversation back to business. Mr. Stringer warned her not to tell anyone of his advances, she said. Mr. Stringer said Ms. Kim’s account of that remark was “totally and completely false. Our relationship was never a secret, and I would not have said anything of the sort.”
After the World Trade Center attacks, the primary was rescheduled for Sept. 25. Ms. Kim said she shared one more cab ride with Mr. Stringer when he made more advances, asking why she would not have sex with him.
At a political meeting around that time, she said, he suggested he could make her the area’s first Asian-American district leader — if she proved her loyalty to him. Mr. Stringer denied suggesting that, but offered other details of what he has said was a consensual relationship.
“She called me because she wasn’t feeling well, and I went over to her apartment to check on her,” Mr. Stringer said. “After the primary, I remember we had many long, heartfelt conversations, both on the phone and in person, about the disappointment of the election. On a few of those occasions, we kissed.”
Ms. Kim said Mr. Stringer may have visited once when she was ill, but she insisted she had never initiated romantic interactions with him.
As the interview at Ms. Kim’s apartment concluded, Ms. Pastor, her lawyer, raised an issue that is at the heart of the controversy — a question that has left New York Democrats deeply divided.
“Is consent even possible in that situation?” she said.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
