Staff at the nations largest LGBTQ rights organization are bitterly divided over whether their president, Alphonso David, should resign over his role in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos efforts to retaliate against women accusing him of sexual harassment.

Some Human Rights Campaign employees also say counsel threatened them with consequences if they so much as talked to each other about this months bombshell report from the New York attorney general that revealed how David had assisted the Democratic governors attempt to discredit his accusers.

HRC is currently conducting its own investigation into Davids potential wrongdoing, and counsel told staff they werent allowed to speak about the report until the probe is done.

That warning has since been walked back. But its the latest sign of internal chaos at the organization , which is facing an existential crisis as it navigates its way forward with David, disillusioned employees and how it positions itself as an ally to survivors of sexual harassment and assault.

David, who served as Cuomos counsel from 2015 to 2019, appears to have played a significant role in the governors retaliation against some of his accusers. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The New York attorney generals report states, for example, that David provided a confidential personnel file to Cuomos top aides, which they used to discredit one of his accusers, Lindsey Boylan. The former Cuomo staffer has accused the governor of sexual harassment, including kissing her without consent in his office and inviting her to play strip poker on a government airplane.

The report also states that David was involved in discussions about calling and secretly recording a conversation between a former Cuomo staffer and another Cuomo accuser named Kaitlin, whose last name has not been made public. Kaitlin claims that in 2016, the governor grabbed her at a fundraiser and put her into a dance pose for photographers. She says the governor had his staff reach out to offer her a job two days later.

According to the report, David initially declined to sign a letter aimed at discrediting Boylan and attacking her claims as political, but later told a Cuomo aide he would sign the letter if we need him. He also agreed to reach out to women who had previously worked for Cuomo to try to get them to sign a statement saying positive things about the governor, the report said.

David was serving as president of HRC at the time of all these incidents.