A rape survivor being investigated by a state ethics panel for breaching lobbying laws by putting up billboards backing a new sex abuse victims’ law has printed new posters attacking Gov. Andrew Cuomo — and filed a lawsuit saying her right of free speech was violated.
“Is Gov. Cuomo’s idea of Foreplay watching Joint Commission on Public Ethics and his appointee [chairman Michael] Rozen RAPE First Amendment Rights?” the artwork by Kat Sullivan says.
The image of Cuomo shows pink lipstick on his collar.
The piece mocks Cuomo for recently joking about “foreplay” during an upstate speech.
She signed the artwork “Kat Sullivan, RN #Free Speech Kat.”
Sullivan said thousands of posters and stickers will appear in Manhattan in the next few weeks.
Another poster targets JCOPE chairman Rozen.
“Michael K. Rosen: Are You Breaking Free Speech Laws as personal favors to the Roman Catholic Church and your buddy Kenneth R. Feibenerg?”
Feinberg administers church financial programs for victims of clergy abuse.
She said the posters — costing about $30,000 — will pop up on the Lower East Side, in Greenwich Village and near Cuomo and Rozen’s offices in Midtown.
Sullivan’s broadsides against the governor and the JCOPE chairman coincide with a lawsuit her lawyers filed in Albany state Supreme Court claiming the panel is violating her free speech rights by identifying her as a lobbyist and threatening her with fines if she doesn’t register as one.
Sullivan in 2018 paid to put up a series of billboards supporting the Child Victims Act, flew a plane with a banner to draw attention to the issue and created a website that promoted the cause and urged people to contact their senators to back the legislation.
JCOPE sent her letters saying her activity amounted to lobbying and said she was violating the law for not registering as a lobbyist, and could be slapped with a $25,000 civil fine and other late fees.
JCOPE recently defended its handling of Sullivan’s case in a letter to legislators.
In court papers, Sullivan and her lawyers at the Government Justice Center counter that she was acting as a citizen expressing her free speech rights, not a lobbyist. No one paid her for the advocacy.
“The Commission is conducting an improper and abusive investigation of Ms. Sullivan’s efforts to raise awareness about sexual assault and a law addressing child sexual abuse,” said the suit, filed by her lawyer, Cameron Macdonald of the Government Justice Center.
“The commission must be stopped,” the suit says.
But Sullivan particularly directed her ire at Cuomo during an interview with The Post.
“Governor Cuomo has taken quite a few victory laps for approving the Child Victims Act. F**k that guy. I’ll sue him,” she said.
“Michael Rozen is a joke and Governor Cuomo is a bitch. I will see them both in court.”
Cuomo is not listed as a defendant in the current case; Rozen is.
Sullivan said other law firms have offered to represent her pro bono to file a federal lawsuit against JCOPE to argue she is not a lobbyist.
A JCOPE spokesman said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
But JCOPE letters to Sullivan and her lawyer, included as exhibits in the lawsuit, lay out the agency’s case against her.
JCOPE officials said individuals who spend money to influence the Legislature and legislation are considered grassroots lobbyists and must register as lobbyists and report how much they spend.
“The Lobbying Act promotes transparency and does not exclude private citizens who engage in lobbying from having to disclose their lobbying activities. Therefore, while Ms. Sullivan is free to express her opinions and advocate for causes she believes in, she must disclose such activity if it constitutes reportable lobbying activity,” Erin Lynch, JCOPE’s special counsel for lobbying, wrote in a letter to Sullivan’s lawyer.
In a July 12 letter, JCOPE investigations director Pei Peip Cheng-de-Castro said Sullivan “continues to refuse to comply with the Lobbying Act” and said she could face a $25,000 civil fine.
Cuomo press secretary Caitlin Girouard said: “The Cuomo administration led and won the fight to pass the child victims act and extend the statute of limitation for second and third-degree rape and the only facts we have in this case are based on media reports, but if they are correct, there are greater matters that JCOPE should be focused on.”