FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2024
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Radim Dragomaca, [email protected]
NPR Investigation Vindicates Whistleblowers and Victims who Warned the Biden Administration and the U.S. Senate that Eric Garcetti Perjured Himself to Secure Ambassadorship
New victims and never-before-seen video depositions make clear that Garcetti tolerated sexual abuse while serving as Mayor of Los Angeles and lied about what he knew under oath – twice.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – An in-depth NPR investigation and accompanying two-part podcast into a culture of sexual harassment and intimidation at Los Angeles City Hall paint a damning picture of former mayor and one-time rising Democratic Party star Eric Garcetti – fully vindicating whistleblowers from his administration who refused to stay silent.
NPR’s investigation not only echoed and amplified the substantial evidence Whistleblower Aid client Naomi Seligman produced over the past three years, but uncovered additional first-hand accounts from other senior figures who served in and around Garcetti’s administration.
That evidence makes a compelling case that Garcetti’s top aide, Rick Jacobs, engaged in illegal sexual misconduct in the workplace. For example: Jacobs repeatedly locked people in uncomfortably long hugs and kissed them on the lips against their will and used sexual innuendo and racist epithets to intimidate colleagues. Garcetti not only knew about this, the whistleblowers say, but often witnessed it and not only did nothing about it – but enabled it.
What is perhaps most damning and troubling is that NPR’s investigation found additional victims who were previously too afraid to come forward. Those accounts, combined with evidence presented in a lawsuit brought against the City of Los Angeles by a former member of Garcetti’s security detail, exposes inconsistencies in Garcetti’s own sworn testimony during the lawsuit, reveals how a top Garcetti aide was fired after he tried to lodge a formal complaint about Jacobs, and cites other instances of open intimidation and retaliation.
Whistleblower Aid presented much of this evidence to U.S. Senate offices after Garcetti was nominated as U.S. Ambassador to India, holding up his confirmation for close to two years despite unwavering support for Garcetti from the Biden administration. The City of Los Angeles subsequently settled with the former member of Garcetti’s protective detail for $1.8 million.
The Senate narrowly confirmed Garcetti last year following a relentless and ruthless campaign by Garcetti, his allies, and even his parents, who spent over $100,000 on lobbying fees.
“NPR’s investigation leaves no doubt that Eric Garcetti knowingly and willfully protected a sexual predator in his office at the expense of his staff,” Whistleblower Aid CEO Libby Liu said. “This new reporting closes the already tiny window of plausible deniability that the Biden Administration and many senators relied on to push through Garcetti’s nomination as ambassador. If they had believed the first-hand accounts of victims and whistleblowers, and acted on Whistleblower Aid’s legal disclosure showing that Garcetti had committed perjury, we would have an ambassador in India worthy of the honor.”
In representing Naomi Seligman, who served as Garcetti’s communications director from 2015 to 2017, Whistleblower Aid laid out evidence that the mayor had lied under oath both in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and during his lawsuit deposition. Seligman has since joined Whistleblower Aid and serves as its Chief Strategy Officer.
“It is not too late for the Biden Administration, the Senate and the State Department to show they mean what they say and are not willing to tolerate sexual predators or those who enable them,” Liu added. “Garcetti should be recalled from his post as U.S. Ambassador to India, and Vice President Harris should make clear that he has no place in any future administration.”
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Whistleblower Aid provides pro bono legal, advocacy, and communications support to government and private sector whistleblowers acting in the public interest. The organization’s lawyers have represented some of the most consequential national security and Big Tech whistleblowers in history, including the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, the anonymous intelligence community whistleblower whose disclosures led to the first impeachment of President Trump, and others.
Whistleblower Aid is a 501(c)(3) organization.
