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Prominent Senator Objects To Garcetti's India Ambassadorship

March 11, 2022 / 8:38 AM PST / KCAL News

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A prominent U.S. senator made Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's path to becoming U.S. ambassador to India more difficult Thursday, saying he wants the confirmation vote delayed pending an investigation into whether Garcetti ignored sexual harassment allegations against his former senior advisor.

Last July, the 51-year-old Garcetti was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the ambassador to India. In January, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to move forward with Garcetti's nomination. It now sits before the full Senate, which will vote at a later date on whether to confirm Garcetti.

Last month, the nonprofit law firm Whistleblower Aid filed a complaint on behalf of Naomi Seligman, a former spokesperson for Garcetti, with the U.S. Department of Justice, the L.A. County District Attorney's Office and the California Attorney General's Office alleging that Garcetti was in fact aware for years of the purported inappropriate behavior of his longtime senior adviser, Rick Jacobs, and ignored it and attempted to cover it up.

In a letter made available by Politico Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, "I will object (to Garcetti's nomination) because I have received numerous credible allegations from multiple whistleblowers alleging that Mr. Garcetti, while mayor of L.A., had knowledge of sexual harassment and assaults allegedly committed against multiple city employees and their associates by his close advisor, and that he ignored the misconduct."

During an appearance before the Senate committee on Dec. 14, Garcetti defended himself against the allegations that he knew about Jabobs' behavior.

"I want to say unequivocally that I never witnessed, nor was it brought to my attention, that behavior that has been alleged," Garcetti said. "And I also want to assure you that if it had been, I would have immediately taken action to stop that."

Jacobs served as Garcetti's deputy chief of staff from 2013 to 2016. In July of 2020, a Los Angeles police officer who had worked as part of Garcetti's security detail from 2014-19 filed a lawsuit making allegations against Jacobs, from sexually explicit comments to unwanted physical contact.

Then in October of 2020, journalist and former political fixer Yashar Ali alleged that Jacobs had harassed him at various political functions over the course of 10 years, ending in 2015.

Immediately following that revelation, Jacobs announced he was stepping down from his nonprofit work and volunteer activities with the mayor.

In response to Grassley's letter, the mayor's office said in a statement Thursday afternoon:

"Repeating a malicious falsehood will never turn a lie into the truth. The Mayor has testified under oath multiple times, including before the U.S. Senate, and stands by his testimony unequivocally: he absolutely did not witness nor was he informed of any of the behavior being alleged. The Mayor has spent the better part of his life advocating aggressively on this issue, and had he been aware of any such behavior, he absolutely would have acted to stop it."

The White House stood by Garcetti in a statement to Politico, saying that the mayor "has been clear that he takes any allegations of harassment very seriously and has made clear this type of misconduct is unacceptable in his office in any form ... the president has confidence in Mayor Garcetti and believes he'll be an excellent representative in India."

The whistleblower complaint, filed on Feb. 2, alleges that Garcetti committed felony perjury on Feb. 8, 2021, during his deposition as part of the lawsuit, and on Dec. 14, 2021, when he told the Senate committee under oath that he "never witnessed nor was it brought to my attention the behavior that's being alleged."

Seligman claims Jacobs sexually assaulted her in City Hall in April 2016 when he allegedly "forcefully grabbed her lower back, pinned her arms down, pressed himself against her, and held and kissed her for an extended amount of time," according to the complaint.

The document contends that Seligman notified the mayor's former chief of staff Ana Guerrero, who the complaint said "did not act surprised" and allegedly said that "no complaints would be tolerated because Mr. Jacobs was important to the mayor."

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Eric Garcetti