Sen. Chuch Grassley (R-IA) has reportedly asked to place a hold on the nomination of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to be U.S. Ambassador to India, as he investigates whether Garcetti knew about alleged sexual misconduct by a key aide in his office in L.A.
As Breitbart News previously reported, Garcetti’s aide, Rick Jacobs, faced numerous allegations of sexual harassment, including claims made by a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer and a prominent left-wing journalist, Yashar Ali.
Ali accused Garcetti of doing nothing to stop Jacobs’s alleged harassment, despite allegedly knowing of Jacobs’s misconduct:
Politico reported Thursday:
Investigators in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) office are probing what Garcetti knew of longtime political adviser and City Hall confidant Rick Jacobs’ inappropriate behavior toward women and men in and around City Hall. They have also spoken to whistleblowers about the matter. And according to a document obtained by POLITICO, they have asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to try and halt the nomination until their investigation is concluded.
“The United States owes it to the Republic of India to send them a qualified Ambassador that will represent the values of the United States,” Grassley said in the documents sent to McConnell on Thursday to notify the Senate about the hold. “Mayor Garcetti may very well be fully qualified, but at this time, the Senate needs to look into these allegations further.”
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Garcetti, a Democrat in his final year as mayor, was an early supporter of Biden’s 2020 run, and went on to serve as campaign co-chair, helping raise money and vet vice presidential nominees. He has repeatedly denied that he knew about Jacobs’ alleged behavior, including during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in December. The lone question about the claims came from Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), and there were no follow-ups.
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Since last year, former Garcetti aides, including a top spokeswoman in his office, Naomi Seligman, have been urging Senate offices on both sides of the aisle to take a closer look at the evidence that casts doubt on his denials. Seligman, herself an alleged victim of Jacobs, enlisted the help of the nonprofit outfit Whistleblower Aid to file a perjury complaint against Garcetti and has called on Biden to rescind his nomination.
Garcetti has denied knowing about Jacobs’s misconduct, telling Elex Michaelson of L.A. Fox affiliate KTTV-11: “Repeating an untruth doesn’t make it any less untrue.”
Left-wing activists, including Black Lives Matter demonstrators, have long opposed a Cabinet post for Garcetti, who was one of President Joe Biden’s earliest supporters in the 2020 primary.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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