State GOP Chairman Edward F. Cox issued a statement with terms like "cover-up" and "hush money" and called upon Silver to resign.
"Faced with a member of his caucus who had on multiple occasions sexually harassed female staff members, Speaker Silver neglected to refer the matter to the Assembly Ethics Committee and instead took an active role in covering up the abuse, including paying over $100,000 of taxpayer money to the victim, who did not request confidentiality," Cox said. "Silver's actions were unethical and wholly unbecoming of a member of the New York State Assembly, let alone its speaker.
"Additionally, the speaker's use of public money to settle these claims is questionable at best, and may in and of itself be illegal," he added. "For the sake of female officials and staffers in the Assembly - and indeed for the sake of all New Yorkers - Sheldon Silver must step down as speaker of the New York State Assembly."
--Robert J. McCarthy
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Albany
