NEW DELHI: Ambassadorship to India in jeopardy over allegations of cover-up in sexual harassment case, perjury.
The continuity of US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, has come under dark clouds after instances of condoning sexual harassment at the workplace, evasion of accountability, and likely perjury to secure his ambassadorship have been alleged by an investigation done by NPR (National Public Radio), a US-based online media platform.
Prominent US-based rights and transparency organizations have urged the Joe Biden administration to recall Garcetti from India in the wake of these recent revelations.
The former Mayor of Los Angeles and a prominent Democrat, Garcetti, considered a close associate of President Joe Biden, was deputed to India in May last year.
The first allegations against Garcetti, that of ignoring repeated sexual harassment of people meeting him at regular intervals and working with him, at the hands of Rick Jacobs, who for a long time served as Deputy Chief of Staff and his closest confidant, came up in a case that was filed in the Superior Court of California in September 2020 by Los Angeles police officer Matthew Garza, a member of Garcetti’s security detail.
Garza, in his suit accessed by The Sunday Guardian, has claimed that Garcetti witnessed some of Jacobs’ behaviour but did not take steps to stop it: “From in or around 2014 to in or around October 2019, Plaintiff, was subjected to unwanted sexual harassment by Jacobs, who is openly gay. The City of Los Angeles, through Mayor Eric Garcetti, senior aides to the Mayor, and other employees in the City of Los Angeles, were aware as early as 2014 of Rick Jacobs’ harassing conduct toward men and/or complaints against Jacobs for harassing conduct. Despite this knowledge, the City of Los Angeles failed to take the necessary steps to prevent Jacobs from further harassing other men, including but not limited to Plaintiff.
Mayor Garcetti was present on approximately half of the occasions when Jacobs behaved in this way, and witnessed Jacobs’ conduct, but he took no action to correct Jacobs’ obviously harassing behavior.”
The 15-page suit contains a detailed description of how the police officer was subjected to similar several instances of harassment in front of Garcetti.
In February 2022, Naomi Seligman, the former communications director to Garcetti, filed a complaint with prosecutors claiming that Garcetti committed perjury with respect to his role, over many years, covering up repeated and egregious sexual assault and harassment by his close advisor Jacobs against more than a dozen victims, male and female.
The complaint, accessed by The Sunday Guardian, was filed by attorneys for Whistleblower Aid, a Washington-based non-profit legal organization. The complaint also alleges that Garcetti conspired to cover up complaints of sexual harassment against Jacobs.
She also shared a picture, as part of the testimony, that showed Jacobs, with his hand covering a person’s genital area. In the same picture, standing next to the person is Garcetti who is smiling, with both thumbs up.
Seligman’s complaint was sent to the Justice Department, the California Attorney General and the Los Angeles District Attorney, the White House, the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General, and leaders of the Senate and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Responding to these complaints, Garcetti’s office had issued a statement at the time, stating that “There is nothing new here—and these false claims about the Mayor are just as ridiculous now as they were when they were first made. The Mayor stands by his testimony unequivocally, and more than a dozen witnesses have testified under oath that he was never made aware of any improper behavior.”
In her complaint, Seligman has stated that she served as Director of Communications to the Office of the Mayor of Los Angeles from March 2015 until September 2017. “She has testified under penalty of perjury that on April 14, 2016, in front of several subordinate colleagues, Mr. Jacobs forcefully grabbed her lower back, pinned her arms down, pressed himself against her, and held and kissed her for an extended amount of time.
Unfortunately, many others had similar or worse experiences with Jacobs. Garcetti knew all about Jacobs’ abuses: The mayor heard about many incidents from his staff and others, and personally witnessed multiple episodes. But Garcetti never disciplined Jacobs or otherwise held him accountable. Further, we have documentary and testimonial evidence that Garcetti knowingly and deliberately ordered his staff to cover up Jacobs’ assaults and harassment. For example, when my client notified Ana Guerrero, then the mayor’s Chief of Staff, of her assault, Guerrero did not act surprised; instead, Guerrero told Ms. Seligman that no complaints would be tolerated because Mr. Jacobs was important to the mayor. Garcetti’s motive was apparently to protect his close friend and top aide.”
The complaint further alleged that “Garcetti committed felony perjury under federal law when, during his sworn Senate nomination hearing testimony on December 14, 2021, he lied under oath in response to a direct question from Senator Sheehan about the Garza litigation, falsely stating: ‘In regards to the specific [Garza] case, I want to say unequivocally, that I never witnessed nor was it brought to my attention the behavior that’s been alleged, and I want to assure you if it had been, I would have immediately taken action to stop that.’”
The closeness between Garcetti and Jacobs, as alleged in the complaint, shows that in 2012, Jacobs formed the “Lots of People Who Support Eric Garcetti for Mayor” PAC, raising $2.3 million for Garcetti’s successful election bid. Later, Garcetti named Jacobs Deputy Chief of Staff in August 2013, in charge of “communications, external affairs, scheduling, protocol, and strategic partnerships.” Jacobs would reportedly block off entire days to spend time with Mayor Garcetti. In 2013, Jacobs was instrumental in setting up The Mayor’s Fund, a non-profit supporting certain city initiatives. From Jacobs’ perch as Board Member and Treasurer, he exerted significant control over the organization. In September of 2014, Jacobs coordinated several national and international climate initiatives for Garcetti, including the Mayor’s National Climate Action Agenda (MNCAA), which was launched at the Clinton Global Initiative as a bipartisan climate network for mayors.
Garcetti co-founded the organization, also known as the Climate Mayors, was named chair, and held the position until November of 2020. In 2015, Jacobs reportedly claims that he began using a title that didn’t officially exist, “Executive Vice Mayor,” reportedly with Garcetti’s knowledge.
In 2017, Garcetti made Jacobs CEO of the Accelerator for America, a new economic development non-profit. In July of 2017, Jacobs travelled with Garcetti and his delegation to Europe to secure Los Angeles’ successful 2028 Olympic bid. Garcetti made Jacobs Director of the Democratic Midterm Victory Fund, for which Jacobs was actively fundraising into 2018.
Among those who have been identified as victims of Jacobs’ sexual assault include LAPD officer Matthew Garza, journalist Yashar Ali, Naomi Seligman, her husband, Julie Ciardullo, then chief legal counsel in the mayor’s office, Alex Comisar, a member of the Mayor’s communications staff, and Henry Casas, who served as Director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement.
After Seligman resigned because of the circumstances in the office, her replacement as Director of Communications was Suzanne Emmerling, who too confirmed Jacobs’ behaviour with another colleague and the fact that Garcetti was aware of it, while stating that “Numerous senior staffers close to the Mayor had said in different ways that nothing will ever change this dynamic, he [Rick] is the most powerful person, and you need to just learn how to deal with it.”
The complaint was filed even as Garcetti was awaiting a confirmation vote by the US Senate to be ambassador to India after his nomination cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Seligman had contended that Garcetti lied in a deposition that was brought by Los Angeles police officer Matthew Garza, a member of Garcetti’s security detail. Garza claims that Garcetti witnessed some of Jacobs’ behaviour but did not take steps to stop it.
Jacobs has called Garza’s lawsuit “pure fiction.”
Seligman’s complaint further alleges that Garcetti lied under oath during his confirmation hearing in December.
Asked about these allegations by Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Garcetti said that he “never witnessed nor was it brought to my attention the behavior that’s been alleged, and I want to assure you if it had been, I would have immediately taken action to stop that.”
Rick Jacobs now runs RDJ Strategic Advisors, a California-based firm he founded.
Months after Garcetti was sworn in as ambassador to India, Los Angeles city leaders approved a $1.8 million settlement to resolve the lawsuit. The closure of the case allowed NPR to use the California Public Records Act to obtain more than a thousand pages of unredacted transcripts of depositions of Garcetti’s inner circle and publish, for the first time, excerpts of the video of Garcetti’s deposition, showing his body language, facial expressions, and demeanour as he responded to tough questions about the harassment allegations.
The evidence, as per NPR, includes new allegations of workplace misconduct and retaliation against those who spoke out against Jacobs and Garcetti while raising concern about Garcetti’s truthfulness, as well as the Biden-Harris administration’s push to appoint Garcetti as ambassador to India.
In her statement on these developments, Whistleblower Aid CEO Libby Liu stated that “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. 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. 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. 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.”