Fox News reports that a New York Democrat who resigned amid accusations that her staffer attempted to solicit a girl whom he thought was underage is now trying to blame her resignation on "institutional misogyny."
This New York Democrat is Westchester County Board of Legislators Chair Catherine Borgia.
Borgia announced her resignation on Friday.
Borgia, up until that point, was facing pressure to resign from her colleagues.
The incident at issue here involves 33-year-old Anand Singh, a former employee of Borgia. His official position was legislative aide.
On April 12, a 31-minute video was released by the group OBL Global that purportedly showed Singh attempting to meet up with a person whom he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
The messages between Singh and the individual - who was actually an OBL Global "decoy" - became more and more sexual as the conversation continued. At one point, Singh says that he would "def teach" her "a thing or two." He also asked such questions as whether she was on birth control.
The situation ended with Singh being confronted by the OBL Global group where he thought he was going to meet up with the girl. Singh ended up being fired, on April 13, over the incident, but he has not been arrested.
Borgia's problem is that she knew about this situation since December - long before the video was released. And, those around Borgia took issue with Borgia not doing more to address the issue - Singh wasn't fired, after all, until the release of the video.
Last week, Borgia attempted to bring a lawsuit to prevent her colleagues from removing her from her position atop the Westchester County Board of Legislators.
But, by Friday, it became clear that the law was not on Borgia's side. So, she resigned, just before her colleagues were about to vote her out of office.
In her resignation statement, Borgia tried to argue that the situation creates a bad precedent, saying:
Every Chair of this body will be seated knowing that if nine colleagues disagree with any of the myriad decisions that the position requires, he/she/they can also be removed at any time. I'm saddened that my colleagues chose to take the path that most endangers the work of the County.
Borgia, in the statement, also tried to blame the situation on "institutional misogyny that is all too pervasive in the brutal, reactive, and mean-spirited political world in which we all now live."
Borgia will officially be out of office by the end of this year.
