Harassment scandal roils Garcetti’s India bid. Here’s what we know

Driving the marketing campaign within the Senate to thwart Garcetti’s task in India has been Seligman, who has persistently charged that the mayor lied and shouldn’t be confirmed. She escalated her effort in February, getting the nonprofit regulation agency Whistleblower Support to file a grievance with native, state and federal prosecutors demanding that Garcetti be prosecuted for perjury.

Seligman stated in her deposition within the Garza case that she noticed Jacobs hugging and kissing folks in ways in which had been clearly undesirable, whereas the mayor was at shut hand. Requested whether or not Garcetti might need missed seeing these moments, Seligman testified: “If he selected to not.”

She additionally testified that Jacobs grabbed and kissed her forcibly in her workplace in 2016, an incident she stated was witnessed by “eight or 9” members of her communications group. Her pal, Rebecca Ninburg, testified that Seligman had referred to as her shortly after the alleged incident to complain about Jacobs’ conduct.

Most of the staffers who labored below Seligman and Jacobs on the time instructed The Instances they didn’t recall that incident. Solely Becca MacLaren, Garcetti’s speechwriter, has gone on the document along with her account. The opposite employees, together with a number of who’ve left the mayor’s workplace, requested to stay nameless; saying they didn’t need to be caught up within the anger and recrimination swirling across the case.

Seligman has accused these casting doubt on the kissing incident as being a part of a tradition of silence within the mayor’s workplace.

She testified that she went to then-Chief of Workers Ana Guerrero to report the compelled kiss, however that Guerrero merely “shook her head, rolled her eyes [and] obtained her kind of clean offended stare.” She stated Guerrero took no motion as a result of Jacobs was seen as an “untouchable,” valued for his fundraising prowess and shut ties to Garcetti and his spouse.

In her testimony within the Garza case, Guerrero denied that she ever obtained a sexual harassment grievance about Jacobs, from Seligman or anybody else. She depicted the mayor’s workplace as delicate to such considerations and stated fast motion would have been taken to resolve any drawback.

The chief of workers and others acknowledged seeing Jacobs kiss others on the lips in social conditions, however they stated it didn’t appear undesirable or inappropriate.

A lot of the opposite proof surrounding the Jacobs furor doesn’t go on to Garcetti’s information however means that many individuals within the mayor’s workplace talked concerning the prime aide’s conduct: