{"id":46294,"date":"2021-06-11T21:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T03:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/governor-settled-harassment-claim-to-focus-on-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2021-06-12T03:39:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T03:39:00","slug":"governor-settled-harassment-claim-to-focus-on-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/governor-settled-harassment-claim-to-focus-on-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor settled harassment claim to focus on pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday defended her handling of accusations of harassment by a former campaign spokesman that resulted in a financial settlement of at least $62,500 in payments from her political campaign. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press)<\/span>Morgan Lee<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday defended her handling of accusations of harassment by a former campaign spokesman that resulted in a financial settlement of at least $62,500 in payments from her political campaign, explaining that the pandemic demanded her attention.<\/p>\n

In her first in-person comments concerning the settlement with James Hallinan, Lujan Grisham briefly described her decision to resolve the matter.<\/p>\n

Hallinan, who worked as a spokesman for Lujan Grisham\u2019s 2018 campaign for governor, has accused Lujan Grisham of dropping water on his crotch and then grabbing his crotch in the midst of a campaign staff meeting before the election \u2013 accusations that the governor denies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was focused on the pandemic, and I’ll stand by that decision every minute of every day,” said Lujan Grisham, describing the decision to settle.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there have been any other financial settlements and nondisclosure agreements of a similar nature, the governor said no.<\/p>\n

Lujan Grisham’s political committee paid at least $62,500 to an attorney for Hallinan. Payments were made in five monthly installments to a law firm representing Hallinan, who now runs a public relations and political consulting firm.<\/p>\n

Lujan Grisham previously issued a denial of Hallinan’s public allegations through a campaign spokesman. It is unclear whether Hallinan\u2019s harassment accusations ever were independently vetted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not seen anywhere in the country where there\u2019s an independent investigation over an employment claim,\u201d Lujan Grisham said Friday at a news conference. \u201cI\u2019ve been open and transparent and will continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple sexual harassment and groping allegations against Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have prompted an investigation by that state’s attorney general and are included in a probe by the New York Assembly into possible impeachment charges.<\/p>\n

Lujan Grisham said \u201cthose are not issues you find anywhere in this administration,\u201d and noted that there was no substantiation of Hallinan’s claims by witnesses.<\/p>\n

The incident allegedly took place at the home of state Rep. Deborah Armstrong, a former campaign treasurer and private business partner to Lujan Grisham. Armstrong has said she never witnessed anything inappropriate.<\/p>\n

State campaign finance regulators say that the settlement payments from a political campaign account are permissible because they involve an employment dispute related to Hallinan\u2019s time with the governor’s election campaign.<\/p>\n

The governor’s office and campaign have declined to say whether further payment is still due to Hallinan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday defended her handling of accusations of harassment by a former campaign spokesman that resulted in a financial settlement of at least $62,500 in payments from her political campaign. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press)Morgan Lee SANTA FE \u2013 New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday defended her handling of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46294"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}