Former NYC cop Jeff Klein called ‘deaf’ for Capitol visit despite sexual harassment investigation

Former high-powered State Senate Representative Jeff Klein returned to Albany on Wednesday defending the cause of the “disabled” despite years of controversy hanging over his head, angering a former employee who accused him of sexual harassment.

“Jeff Klein, who sexually molested me while I worked for him, is at the Capitol today, his old haunt. He is still under ethics investigation, he is allowed to roam the facility where he abused his power,” Erica Vladimir, who accused Klein in 2018 of forcibly kissing her outside a bar in Albany while she was working for him in 2015, tweeted on alert Wednesday.

“I’m getting used to seeing people ‘from that time’: a former colleague who helped cover it up, a former best friend who stopped talking to me after I went public. But this is… different. It brings out the anger that I know many others feel as they try to move on,” she added.

Klein, who denied Wladimir’s allegations, told The Post as he left the Capitol that he had meetings in the building on Wednesday to discuss issues relating to “disabled people” before rushing when asked about Wladimir’s comments.

The seven-term lawmaker was once one of the most powerful men in New York politics when he led a splinter group of Democratic senators called the Independent Democratic Conference, which allied with Republicans to control the state Senate.

But Vladimir’s accusation, first reported by HuffPost in January 2018, likely contributed to his defeat later that year after progressives targeted him and other Democrats who were part of a group that officially disbanded in April 2018.

The ethics investigation was launched shortly after Wladimir, one of the founders of the Sexual Harassment Working Group that helped push Albany lawmakers to update the state’s sexual harassment laws, issued a statement with no end in sight five years later.

A spokesman for the New York State Commission on Ethics and Government Lobbying did not respond to a request for comment on the five-year investigation, which is officially ongoing.

Klein has made a name for himself in the political consulting business over the past five years, and government documents show he represents a number of clients in his current Allied Government Affairs appearance, including Grubhub, healthcare providers, and the homeowner-backed Community Housing Improvement Program.

“Hiring Jeff Klein to lobby the state government would be a great idea if 2013 comes around again. Then his Republican friends controlled the Senate, and his friend [ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo] was at the top of his game,” said an Albany insider. “Real time? Not so much.

It remains unclear which specific clients Klein, who was banned from lobbying former colleagues for two years after his 2018 defeat, may have been working for while he lobbied at the Capitol on Wednesday.

“Government employees are now exposed to his sarcasm and potential harassment. I will forever hold my breath when I walk through the same corridors (of which there will be many). Meanwhile, Klein drags out the ethical investigation (five plus years) while evading any responsibility. I’m tired – Vladimir tweeted.

An Albany insider said whoever Klein represents, his clients are better off spending their money on someone who is still under investigation for alleged violations of legal ethics.

“The only thing that could be more deaf than Jeff Klein’s lobbying at the Capitol would be if he went into business with Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump to lobby the Legislature,” the insider said.