Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-Yes, it’s another salacious and embarrassing Eric Garcetti lie debunked in broad daylight just as Joe Biden mulls over options for his Presidential Cabinet and close advisors.
Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and the FBI should steer the President-Elect away from Garcetti, the lame-duck Mayor of Los Angeles and Biden campaign co-chair, because nobody poses a greater avoidable risk of scandal or blackmail to the Biden Administration.
On Friday, the LA Times published a story that irrefutably debunks Garcetti’s denials that Rick Jacobs (photo above, left), his guy pal and advisor, sexually harassed men in his presence and to his amusement. The story includes a photo showing a grinning Garcetti posing in a group photo at the 2017 U.S. Conference of Mayors, while inches away Jacobs gestures as though he is going to grab the crotch of the man standing to Garcetti’s immediate right.
No need to use “alleged” there. . .
The Times writes, “In October, three other men came forward with accusations that they had been targeted by Jacobs’ unwelcome touching or harassment. One of the alleged victims was Yashar Ali, a journalist who wrote about the mayoral advisor’s aggressive behavior.”
Matt Garza, a former LAPD officer who was assigned to Garcetti’s security detail, is suing and says that Garcetti was present when the sexual harassment took place, did nothing and sometimes even giggled about it.
Perhaps most disturbing is Jacobs’ ease and amusement acting like a jackass in the presence of Garcetti and other political mucky-mucks, i.e. it doesn’t look like the first #MeToo incident to take place literally under the Mayor’s nose. And where there are highly credible accusers, there could be a dozen more, including some who could seek favors from Garcetti to keep his skeletons buried.
Klain and the FBI should also look at this column’s last piece detailing how the LAPD still refuses to turn over public records about an alleged domestic incident at Garcetti’s home, and why its Internal Affairs Group, IAG, with which this column has been speaking for a year, suddenly sent me an introductory letter that was back-dated two weeks, imploring “Your cooperation in this matter is essential in order to conduct a thorough and complete investigation.”
Oh, a little note about the LAPD’s Internal Affairs Group: I immediately called it on November 13 upon receipt of its back-dated October 29 letter, but it is now 11 days and counting without a response, validating some of the worst concerns people may harbor about the LAPD’s integrity. This is another scandalous dam that could burst and flood the Rose Garden, as it were.
They should also ask Garcetti about the slew of other ways he lied to and cheated Los Angeles, including irrefutably falsifying thousands of pet “adoptions” to misleadingly claim that “LA is a No Kill city,” only to reverse those statistics – without comment – within hours after this column exposed that fraud.
Then there’s the whereabouts of the $1.2 billion in HHH funds or why Garcetti’s office refuses to turn over to this column records related to Project Room Key; it has them but refuses to fork them over because of the devastating story that they tell.
They should also keep a close watch on another Garcetti enabler, LA City Attorney Mike Feuer, who may have to cough up an enormous sum of money to keep Garcetti out of an embarrassing, deep-diving deposition in the Garza lawsuit which not only has the potential to take down the Mayor but LAPD management as well.
“All claims of sexual harassment deserve to be heard,” said LA City Council President Nury Martinez, who would succeed Garcetti as Interim Mayor should Biden hire him despite the warning signs. “I expect all complaints to be thoroughly investigated and addressed.”
That remains to be seen. Martinez didn’t do anything to sideline another City Hall pervert, the now-indicted former Councilmember Jose Huizar, until she had no other option. She needs to immediately move to hold Garcetti himself accountable and demonstrate her value to the rest of us who vote, pay her salary and the legal settlements. This column has submitted a public records request to determine who else in City Hall had the controversial Garcetti/Jacobs photo and when they clicked on it.
And a little footnote to the Times’ story. While it published the Garcetti/Jacobs photo online on Friday and made the story a below-the-fold front-pager in its Saturday print edition, it buried the revealing photo in the back of its A-section.
All of this is true to form for Garcetti, the LAPD and the LA Times, for whom lying to the public suffices until reality punches them in the nose.
Like it’s doing right now.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
