But that’s not all. Yesterday’s
that after Kraushaar left the National Restaurant Association in 1999, she got another bureaucratic job with the INS, where in 2002 she made yet another financial claim against her employers. The story makes clear how frivolous the complaint was. She said that the INS did not allow her to work from home following a car accident, and that a fellow worker had distributed “sexually explicit e-mail containing jokes comparing men and women to computers.” In compensation for these wrongs, she demanded: (a) an up-front cash payment; (b) a promotion; (c) a raise in salary of between $12,000 and $16,000; and (d) a fellowship to study for a year at the Harvard School of Government. Later she dropped her complaint, saying it was “relatively minor.” But if it was minor, why was she demanding so much to settle it? Clearly this is a frivolous person who seeks to milk the system for whatever she can get out of it.
The serial complainer
November 10, 2011
A woman who got a big payout from the National Restaurant Association after accusing then-boss Herman Cain of sexual harassment filed yet another workplace complaint against her new employer just three years later, it was revealed yesterday.
And Karen Kraushaar—whose claims against Cain have rocked the Republican presidential hopeful’s campaign—reportedly wanted a hefty series of perks, including a big raise and a one-year stint at Harvard, to settle her complaint against the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Cain’s campaign—which has vehemently denied he ever harassed any women—quickly seized on the revelations, linking them to disclosures about the financial difficulties of another Cain accuser, Sharon Bialek.
Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon called the news about Kraushaar and Bialek “interesting revelations” and said, “We hope the court of public opinion will take this into consideration as they, the women, continue to try to keep the story alive.”
That story soon could gain new life with a planned press conference, possibly as early as today, by at least Bialek and Kraushaar, whose lawyer said she plans to give reporters a detailed account of what Cain did to her.
Two other women who have made similar claims against Cain have been invited to the as-yet-scheduled press conference, but as of last night had not accepted.
Kraushaar, 55, received a $45,000 confidential payment in 1999 from the restaurant association to settle her sex-harassment complaints against Cain.
She later took a job as a spokeswoman at the INS.
Yesterday, The Associated Press, citing interviews with three former Kraushaar supervisors, reported that in late 2002 or early 2003 she filed a complaint over allegedly being unfairly denied permission to work from home following a serious car accident.
That complaint also accused a manager of disseminating a sexually explicit e-mail containing jokes comparing men and women to computers, a supervisor told AP.
To settle that complaint, Kraushaar at first made a slew of demands, including thousands of dollars in an up-front payment, a one-year fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and reinstatement of the leave she had used following her accident.
She also demanded a pay-scale promotion that would have boosted her annual salary by between $12,000 and $16,000.
Kraushaar later dropped her complaint. She told AP she considered it “relatively minor” and not relevant to the issue of her prior complaint about Cain.
She now is communications director for the US Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Office.
Her lawyer in both cases, Joel Bennett, told The Post that Kraushaar’s pattern of filing workplace complaints does not diminish her credibility.
But an INS supervisor at the time of her complaint there told ABC News that her allegations were “frivolous,” that she had a “poor work ethic,” and there were “doubts about her credibility.”
A Kraushaar colleague who worked closely with her at INS just prior to the complaint told The Post it was “not surprising” that she filed the action, describing her as an exacting, straitlaced professional who always stood her ground.
“She was very particular about ensuring that people knew where the boundaries were” for behaviors that she felt was unprofessional or inappropriate, said the colleague, adding that “there is nothing unusual about that.”
Maria Cardona, the then-INS supervisor who hired Kraushaar, told CBS News yesterday that Kraushaar recently said to her about Cain, “Maria, now you know why I have always been so grateful to you, you saved me from this monster.”
Meanwhile, Bialek yesterday said Cain was lying when he said he did not remember her.
She pointed out that she had recently approached and spoken to Cain a month ago at a Tea Party rally.
