Whitman Campaign Calls Housekeeper Dispute a 'Coordinated Political Attack

The race for California's next governor is heating up as Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman enter the last month of campaigning. But allegations from a high-profile Hollywood attorney claiming Whitman knowingly employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper from 2000-2009 threaten to derail the former business exec's campaign as the finish-line approaches.

Nicandra Diaz-Santillan, the employee in question, has retained Gloria Allred to speak on her behalf -- a discrimination and feminist attorney known for representing well-known and often controversial past clients, recently including two alleged mistresses of golfer Tiger Woods.

During a press conference Wednesday, Allred detailed her client's past experience working as a housekeeper in the Whitmans' home, claiming she was "exploited, disrespected, humiliated, and emotionally and financially abused." In June 2009, "Nicki" told reporters that she approached Whitman and confessed she was in the country illegally.

The LA Times reports:

"I told her I don't have papers to work here and need her help," the worker said at a press conference in attorney Gloria Allred's office. Whitman's husband "was very angry and said, 'I told you, I told you she was going to bring us problems.' Ms. Whitman turned to him and said, 'Calm down, calm down.' " She said Whitman's husband "yelled" at her. "I was crying for fear and intimidation. With a face full of tears, I told them, 'I believe in people. And I believe people deserve a chance. I also told them I don't wish them any harm. I just wanted their help.

In response, Meg Whitman offered an "absolute unequivocal denial" of the allegations that she knowingly employed an illegal worker and even agreed to a polygraph test.  In a statement from her campaign, Whitman said she considered Diaz-Santillan as part of her extended family:

After nine years of faithful service, Nicky came to us in June 2009 and confessed that she was an illegal worker. Nicky had falsified the hiring documents and personal information she provided to the employment agency that brought her to us in 2000. Nicky told me that she was admitting her deception now because she was aware that her lie might come out during the campaign. Nicky said she was concerned about hurting my family and me.

As required by law, once we learned she was an illegal worker, I immediately terminated Nicky's employment. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I considered Nicky a friend and a part of our extended family.

Whitman also speculated that "Nicky" may be being manipulated by Allred and her gubneratorial opponent, Jerry Brown:

I am deeply worried about Nicky and her family. I believe Nicky is being manipulated by Gloria Allred for political and financial purposes during the last few weeks of a hotly contested election. This is a shameful example of the politics of personal destruction practiced by people like Jerry Brown and Gloria Allred.

Allred is widely known as a supporter of the Democratic Party and has donated money to Brown's campaign.  But Allred denied the allegation:

“No one from Jerry Brown’s campaign has contacted me, I haven’t contacted them. As far as my client goes Nicky doesn’t know anyone in politics, was not contacted by the Brown campaign, she didn’t contact them,” Allred said. “The only person she knows in politics is Meg Whitman and Meg Whitman is the one who has political motivation to lie and she has the agenda to try to cover this up. Our evidence will show she is lying.”

Allred's alleged "evidence" is a 2003 "no-match" letter from the Social Security Administration that shows "Nicki" was an undocumented worker, and also claims Diaz-Santillan had seen multiple letters in the Whitmans' trash from the government.  On Thursday, Allred presented a letter which seemed to show a handwritten note from Whitman's husband, instructing Diaz-Santillan to "look into" a "no-match" letter from the Social Security Administration.

But Whitman denies ever having seen a letter from the government and insists the couple terminated the housekeeper's employment when she learned of her illegal status.