Politics
Column: George Gascón and Todd Spitzer are more alike than you think. Hubris unites them
George Gascón gained his race for Los Angeles County district lawyer towards an entrenched incumbent, in a shocking upset. He vowed to upend the workplace, which he decried as antiquated and out of tune in its strategy to combating crime.
However Gascón, previously a high-ranking LAPD officer and San Francisco district lawyer, instantly proved controversial, each inside and out of doors the courtroom.
Prosecutors started to file lawsuits towards their boss, alleging skilled incompetence and private vendettas. Enemies launched a rhetorical barrage of well-funded fusillades. District attorneys throughout California shunned considered one of their very own.
As a substitute of making an attempt to make peace with opponents, Gascón refused to permit the likelihood he was unsuitable till it was too late, when he was in a combat for his political life.
He’s going through a second recall try in as a few years despite the fact that Gascón was simply elected in 2020. The union for rank-and-file L.A. County prosecutors lately gave him an amazing vote of no confidence.
Now becoming a member of Gascón within the pantry of pilloried prosecutors is his polar reverse, Orange County D.A. Todd Spitzer.
Gascón and Spitzer characterize two radically completely different world views. L.A.’s prime prosecutor desires to reform what he sees as a damaged tradition of punitive punishment, whereas Spitzer would’ve made an ideal hanging choose in a John Wayne western.
The 2 unsurprisingly don’t like one another. Spitzer is operating for reelection utilizing the hashtag #NoLAinOC and claims all of Los Angeles’ present ills are the fault of Gascón’s allegedly soft-on-crime strategy.
Gascón, for his half, has described Spitzer’s scorched-earth philosophy as “extremely harmful and fully faraway from actuality.”
However being conservative hasn’t saved Spitzer from Gascón’s predicament. The longtime politician has had a February to overlook.
Tracy Miller, a former O.C. senior assistant D.A., filed a declare alleging Spitzer made improper contact with somebody tied to a high-profile homicide case. She says she was lately pushed out of her job for standing as much as an accused sexual harasser who simply so occurred to be Spitzer’s pal.
Ebrahim Baytieh, one other former senior assistant D.A., whom Spitzer as soon as described as his philosophical North Star, accuses Spitzer in a lately leaked memo of endangering a double homicide prosecution.
Spitzer’s sin: opining throughout a closed-door assembly that Black males date white ladies to boost their popularity in society.
Baytieh, whom Spitzer lately fired over alleged misconduct, argued that the racist feedback needs to be disclosed to protection attorneys.
In a memo to the choose, a Newport Seaside police lieutenant investigating the case accused Spitzer of a “cover-up” over the “unsolicited, derogatory and racist remark about Black males/individuals.”
All of this was a prelude to what has strengthened requires Spitzer’s resignation: a video by which Spitzer makes use of the N-word a number of instances in entrance of a legal professionals group whereas quoting hate speech.
O.C. prosecutors demanded an all-hands assembly with their boss, which was held Friday afternoon. The third question in a seven-page record of questions the prosecutors posed: “If a majority of your line [prosecutors] take a vote in favor of no confidence, will you step down?”
Gascón and Spitzer had been at all times completely different sides of the identical coin. Each have distinctive hoarse voices, nice hair and a aptitude for self-aggrandizing themselves because the saviors of their occupation.
Their strategy to a job that’s imagined to be apolitical is bringing them doable political damage, employees revolts — and mistrust from a public that simply desires district attorneys to make life safer for everybody.
I forecast a day of reckoning for each of them way back. Gascón and Spitzer will be seen as Shakespearean characters who masterfully fend off opponents however don’t have any reply for his or her worst enemy: themselves.
A way of superiority repeatedly makes them step in it once they can least afford it.
Spitzer’s use of the N-word occurred at a banquet for the Iranian American Bar Assn. in November 2019, with a video of the speech surfacing final week. He defended saying the N-word, in addition to slurs towards the LGBTQ and Center Japanese communities, arguing that he wanted to repeat the phrases of hate crime perpetrators to totally illustrate the evil of racism.
As somebody who used to usually cowl white-power teams in Orange County, I perceive his clarification and may even sympathize with it.
However the chutzpah of Spitzer to assume he might get away with uttering the N-word in a society the place it’s been successfully banished! Did he actually assume he was above everybody else and that he would get a move? The reply, unsurprisingly, is sure.
It’s how Spitzer has carried himself all through his profession. When requested by the nonprofit publication Voice of OC to touch upon the allegations by Miller and Baytieh, he accused them of being acolytes of former Orange County D.A. Tony Rackauckas, who allegedly taught them “how one can cheat, search revenge and eviscerate your enemies.”
If these prosecutors had been so horrible, Todd, why didn’t you hearth them upon assuming workplace? And what does it say that you simply as a substitute stored them in your inside circle till they criticized you?
Gascón is sensible sufficient to not let phrases come again to hang-out him. His Achilles’ heels are his actions.
One in all his first initiatives was a blanket ban on making an attempt juveniles as adults.
For 2 years, he confronted unrelenting criticism from victims, their members of the family and his personal prosecutors for the stance, which Gascón justified with science and stats and vowed to by no means budge from.
This month, he budged, saying that juveniles might be tried as adults on a case-by-case foundation. The transfer got here after a lady was caught bragging concerning the mild sentence she acquired for a sexual assault she dedicated as a 17-year-old.
Gascón claimed he was merely refining his place. However nobody buys that clarification when he’s clearly making an attempt to appear powerful on crime within the face of a recall marketing campaign that may paint him as something however.
Gascón and Spitzer are banking on the voters who put them in workplace not too way back to shrug about their present missteps and reelect them.
However they’ll by no means have the ability to escape their inherent flaws. The higher fictional analogy isn’t Othello or Macbeth however Harvey “Two-Face” Dent, a self-righteous villain within the Batman universe who noticed the world solely in absolutes. That perspective finally condemned him to a self-defeating doom.
What job did Two-Face maintain in Gotham earlier than his tragic flip? District lawyer.
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
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The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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