Ex-NYC Comptroller Stringer Sues Assault Accuser He Says Derailed Mayoral Bid

Patricia Hurtado
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Former New York City Comptroller and mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer filed a defamation suit against a woman who accused him of making unwanted sexual advances two decades earlier.

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Stringer sued Jean Kim on Monday in New York state court, claiming her allegations against him caused “irreparable harm to him and his political future,” derailing his campaign to become New York City mayor in the 2021 election. He is asking for a retraction of Kim’s allegations and unspecified damages.

Patricia Pastor, a lawyer for Kim, didn’t immediately return a voicemail or email seeking comment about Stringer’s claims.

Kim last year claimed that, while she was working as an unpaid intern on Stringer’s 2001 campaign to be the city’s public advocate, he kissed and groped her in a taxicab, at one point putting his hands down her pants. She said Stringer, then a state assemblyman, warned her not to tell anyone about the incident and promised to make her “the first Asian district leader on the Upper West Side.”

In his suit, Stringer said the two had a “casual relationship” and “were seen together at social events acting amorous.” He said things remained “amicable,” noting Kim volunteered on his successful 2005 campaign for Manhattan borough president and donated to later races, until she approached him for a job that she didn’t get in 2013.

Stringer, who had been comptroller since 2013,, was one of the best-known candidates at the start of the mayoral race and was considered by many to be the early front-runner. In his suit, he accused Kim of timing her sexual assault claims with his rising standings in the polls.

The case is Stringer v. Kim, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan).

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