Garcetti faces senator’s questions about allegations of sexual harassment in mayor’s office

WASHINGTON —  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, testifying on Tuesday before a congressional panel weighing his nomination to be U.S. ambassador to India, told lawmakers he never witnessed misconduct alleged by a former police bodyguard who claims in a lawsuit that an advisor to the mayor sexually harassed him.

“I want to say unequivocally that I never witnessed, nor was it brought to my attention, the behavior that’s been alleged, and I also want to assure you if it had been, I would have immediately taken action to stop that,” Garcetti said during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The mayor was pressed about the sexual harassment claims by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who asked about accusations that he failed to intervene as his former aide, Rick Jacobs, allegedly harassed staffers in the mayor’s office. A Los Angeles police officer, who served for seven years as Garcetti’s bodyguard, claimed in a lawsuit last year that Garcetti witnessed Jacobs harass him but did nothing to stop it. Jacobs has denied the allegations.

India “is a democracy where the rights of women and sexual assault and sexual harassment against women has been rampant over the years,” Shaheen said, adding she wanted to give Garcetti an opportunity to respond to the harassment allegations because “I think it’s very important that we model the behavior that we want to see in our allies.”

Garcetti was not on the hot seat for long. The lightly attended hearing, which lasted under two hours, largely focused on foreign policy questions from Democrats who pressed the mayor on how he would deal with human rights matters, discrimination and how the U.S. intends to assist India’s armed forces. Garcetti shared the stage with two other nominees seeking diplomatic posts: Amy Gutmann, President Biden’s pick for ambassador to Germany, and Donald Armin Blome, the nominee for ambassador to Pakistan (Blome serves as the State Department’s top diplomat in Tunisia).

Biden in July nominated the 50-year-old Garcetti to be the ambassador to India, a critical position in an administration seeking to build alliances in the Indo-Pacific as a bulwark against China. Garcetti’s nomination has dragged on amid an effort by Republican senators to slow the confirmation process of dozens of would-be diplomats in protest over Biden administration national security policies and decisions.

In his opening statement to the Senate panel, Garcetti described India as one of the nations most “vital to the future of American security and prosperity” and vowed to build on the work of his predecessors “to elevate our partnership to new heights,” if confirmed.

Garcetti, who studied Hindi and Indian cultural and religious history in college, said the “idea of a U.S.-India strategic partnership would have been deemed laughable” at the time of his graduation nearly 30 years ago.

California

5 things to know about Mayor Eric Garcetti’s confirmation hearing

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will have a confirmation hearing for his nomination to be ambassador to India before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

Dec. 13, 2021

It is not clear when Garcetti’s nomination will come up for a vote in the committee, and senators will have time to send the mayor questions he must answer in writing. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the committee chair, told the nominees he has a “series of very significant questions” that will require “substantive answers.”

Garcetti’s nomination requires a simple majority vote in the evenly divided Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats due to Vice President Kamala Harris’ role casting tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate.