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Uber just doesn't know when to quit. And Susan Fowler Rigetti is ready.。
The former Uber engineer whose explosive blog post detailed alleged sexual harassment and HR negligence at the company, claims the ride-hail giant is now blaming her for the rash of account deletions following her Feb. 19 post and has hired a law firm to investigate her. In turn, she's hired a law firm of her own. 。
SEE ALSO:Uber's Travis Kalanick: Yep, I'm a jerk, basically 。"Uber names/blames me for account deletes, and has a different law firm -not Holders - investigating me," Rigetti wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. She then noted that she has hired Baker Curtis & Schwartz, a firm specializing in employment law, to represent her. 。
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It is not clear if the investigation she mentions is part of the "smear campaign" she alleged last week, and our attempts to reach Rigetti went unanswered.。
Tweet may have been deleted 。
We also reached out to Uber to confirm that they are in fact investigating Rigetti as she claims, and an Uber spokesperson responded that the "law firm Perkins Coie is looking into the specific allegations raised by Susan. They will report into Eric Holder, who is responsible for the overall investigation into Uber's workplace practices. To be clear: they are investigating Susan's claims, not Susan personally." 。
A message left with Baker Curtis & Schwartz went unreturned. 。
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If Uber is in fact blaming Rigetti for the recent #DeleteUber campaign, it would represent a stark turnaround from just last week when Uber CEO Travis Kalanick appeared to eat crow in an email to staff announcing an internal investigation into Rigetti's claims. 。
In an email, an Uber spokesperson denied that notion that the company blames Rigetti for the campaign. 。SEE ALSO:Users get message about Susan Fowler when trying to delete Uber。
Notably, that investigation was to be conducted by Covington & Burling, a law firm with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as partner, with the goal to "conduct an independent review into the specific issues relating to the work place environment raised by Susan Fowler" as Kalanick wrote last week. Rigetti says that this latest look into her life is not being led by the same firm, suggesting its aims are different. Uber responded to this assertion in a statement, claiming that Perkis Coie is responsible for investigating individuals accusations, and is reporting to Holder. 。 If Uber is seeking to blame Rigetti for the resurgence of the #DeleteUber movement, it also suggests that the account deletions may have hit the company harder than its spokespersons have admitted. Or at least struck some fear into their hearts.。The New York Times 。
The New York Times 。
reported that the #DeleteUber campaign had led to 200,000 account deletions, and that was before Rigetti's blog post dropped. 。
Uber has in the past gone out of its way to tie Rigetti's name to account-deletion requests — sending some users a customized response acknowledging her claims when they sought to delete their accounts. 。 Either way, Uber's public-relations hole keeps getting deeper. 。
Either way, Uber's public-relations hole keeps getting deeper. 。
UPDATE: March 2, 2017, 12:01 p.m. PST 。
This story was updated to include the statement from an Uber spokesperson.。