Advocate Dedicated to Uncovering Government Secrets Is Fired for Sex Harassment

Robert Freeman, a nationally known force for government transparency, engaged in “unwanted physical contact” with a female reporter earlier this year.

By Jesse McKinley, N.Y. Times, June 25, 2019

For more than four decades, Robert J. Freeman was a champion of government transparency in New York.

As the executive director of the Committee on Open Government, he helped offer access to records that the state might have otherwise been happy to shield. But a state investigation revealed he had kept secrets of his own.

On Monday, he was fired after the inquiry showed he had sexually harassed a female reporter and engaged in other inappropriate sexual behavior using his state-owned computer.

Read more here.

[ALB comment: The FOIL godfather foils his career and legacy. Sad.]