Part 122: The LA Fed Tapes Leak – A Timeline of a Scandal in Los Angeles

Published October 22, 2024

Oct 22, 2024

Photo of the LA County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO at night in Los Angeles, California, the site of illegal recordings in 2021-2022 by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

October 18, 2021: Meeting of Nury Martinez, Kevin de León (KDL), Gil Cedillo, and President Ron Herrera is illegally recorded at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (LA Fed)
September 19, 2022: Recording of October 18, 2021 meeting is posted on Reddit in segmented clips
September 30, 2022: Meeting of Ron Herrera and consultant Hannah Cho with Chief of Staff Justin Wesson by phone is illegally recorded
October 6, 2022: Recording of September 30, 2022 meeting is posted on Reddit
October 9, 2022: The LA Fed sends a letter to the LA Times attempting to block publication of the recordings
October 9, 2022: The Los Angeles Times and Knock LA report on the recordings
October 10, 2022: Ron Herrera resigns as President of the LA Fed
October 10, 2022: Mayoral candidate Karen Bass condemns the racism in the recordings; rival Rick Caruso attempts to connect Bass to the participants
October 11, 2022: The LA Fed launches internal investigation, reverses position on recordings as racist, and calls on Martinez, KDL, and Cedillo to resign
October 11, 2022: President Joe Biden, through Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, calls for the resignation of Martinez, KDL, and Cedillo
October 12, 2022: Nury Martinez resigns as President of the Los Angeles City Council
October 12, 2022: California State Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta announces investigation into the discussion of redistricting
October 2022: Attorney’s for LA Fed former Director of Finance Santos Leon allege that KDL and Cedillo pressure District Attorney George Gascón to find evidence on the LA Fed employee and his wife
October 25, 2022: Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore announces an investigation into the source of the recordings
November 8, 2022: Karen Bass wins the Los Angeles Mayor’s race, defeating Rick Caruso despite being outspent 10:1 by a vote of 54.8% to 45.2%
March 2023: Karla Vasquez states that she “resigned,” but Judge Stephen Pfahler later writes that she terminated from her position as part of LA Fed’s “workplace investigation” after suspicious software is allegedly found on her computer
April 3, 2023: According to Santos Leon, he receives notice that investigators from AG Bonta’s office seize his work computer for investigation and becomes suspicious he’s going to be framed for the leak
June 26, 2023: Former Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso claims that the LA Fed Tapes hurt his support with Latinos and attempts to directly connect Karen Bass to the leak
July 2023: Santos Leon is is terminated from her position as part of LA Fed’s internal investigation after suspicious software is allegedly found on her computer
July 12, 2023: The home of Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez is searched by LAPD
October 2023: LAPD sends case against Leon and Vasquez to District Attorney (DA) George Gascón for prosecutorial review. DA Gascón sends the case back to LAPD for further investigation into the source of the leak
October 7, 2023: KDL and Gil Cedillo file civil lawsuits against Leon and Vasquez, and Cedillo also sues the LA Fed over the matter
October 9, 2023: Cedillo blames Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles aligned politicians and the daughter of the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Nika Soon-Shiong for the leak in an interview with La Opinión
January 12, 2024: LAPD Chief Michel Moore announces retirement
January 29, 2024: LAPD sends case back to the DA’s office for a second review
February 28, 2024: LAPD Chief Moore retires after 40 years of service; Dominic Choi becomes Interim Chief of the LAPD
April 26, 2024: DA Gascón declines to file felony charges against Leon and Vasquez, referring the case to City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto for misdemeanor prosecution
August 19, 2024: Anti-SLAPP motions from Leon and Vasquez in KDL’s civil lawsuit fail; Judge Stephen Pfahler orders the case to trial in June 2025
September 11, 2024: KDL blames the DSA-LA for the leak in debate with opponent Ysabel Jurado
September 18, 2024: Leon and Vasquez again deny responsibility for the leak in formal answers to the judge. Leon accuses KDL of intentional or negligent fraud in a civil court filing.
October 2, 2024: Los Angeles Times reports on AG Bonta’s Draft Stipulated Judgment and closed meeting discussion with the City Council over a redistricting settlement to increase Latino representation on council
October 7, 2024: Attorney’s for Leon and Vasquez file notice that they plan to appeal the decision to order a jury trial in KDL’s lawsuit
October 16, 2024: City Attorney Feldstein-Soto announces that no misdemeanor charges will be filed against Leon and Vasquez, citing “insufficient evidence” for prosecution, KDL and Cedillo accuse her of “having shirked her duty” and “injustice” in declining to prosecute the matter
October 29, 2024: Next hearing is scheduled in Gil Cedillo’s civil lawsuit against Leon, Vasquez, and the LA Fed
June 25, 2025: Potential civil case jury trial in Kevin de León vs. Leon and Vasquez scheduled before Judge Pfahler

The timeline above of the LA Fed Tapes scandal represents the most comprehensive attempt to create a timeline of the most significant scandal in Los Angeles since the Mark Ridley-Thomas bribery and fraud scandal and the José Huizar play-to-play scandal broke in 2018. A timeline is a standard investigation tool, and yet to date, none has been published in regards to this still-important scandal that continues to reverberate through the run-up to the November 5, 2024 election. I have omitted one pertinent point, my August 26, 2022 report in regards to USC’s Sam Garrison, a long-time, close associate of former Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, as well as my precipitating observation of Garrison on August 18, 2022, behaving suspiciously. It also doesn’t include events discussed in the recording, such as the George Tyndall sexual abuse scandal of 2018 or the Martin Ludlow-LA Fed scandal of 2006. These background events are both discussed by the meeting participants, along with the more known racist discussion of redistricting. Quite simply, to date, most people think I’m making this up, that it’s foolish.

In announcing that no misdemeanor criminal charges would be filed against the two legally accused leakers, Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez, Stephanie Dazio of the Associated Press declined to name them “because they were not charged.” The Los Angeles Times trio of David Zahniser, Dakota Smith, and James Queally did not extend the same courtesy, instead writing about the debacle: “While civil suits by two of the participants in the conversation are pending, the latest development greatly reduces the chances of a trial that would unearth definitive answers about how and why the scandal was set into motion.” This is a presumptive statement, because even as Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez have been named in the District Attorney’s Charge Evaluation worksheet, they haven’t been found guilty, or even liable, of the act yet. In fact, both plead that they are innocent of having made or leaked the recordings.

Sadly, the assumption that all media reports are correct or even relevant evidence has come into play with reporting from the Los Angeles Times even being entered into evidence in the civil case. Similarly, the Times uncritically states from Gil Cedillo in an interview that a finding the married couple engaged in “criminal activity” goes unchallenged. Rather, the finding is from Kevin de León’s lawsuit, and Cedillo is simply echoing the finding from Judge Stephen Pfahler in ordering it to jury trial in June 2025. Cedillo himself will be back in court on October 29, having sued the LA County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, in addition to Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez.

The City Attorney’s office led by Hydee Feldstein-Soto stated the following: “After careful review, it was determined that there was insufficient evidence to meet the constitutional standard of proof.” The City Attorney’s office continued: “Because of this, our office will not be filing criminal charges.” This itself is a misstatement; rather, the evidence as previously disclosed is not only in dispute, whether any editing software was found, much less spyware, as well as the couple’s home internet protocol address. The evidence here is totally inconclusive. It’s simply not “proof.”

The reality, as one source acknowledged, is that there’s no way to rule out that the couple has been framed and are in fact victims of an external computer hacking operation. In fact, in the civil case filings with Councilmember Kevin De León, who unfortunately has a comparable surname to Santos Leon, the former Director of Finance Ron Herrera, and wife Karla Vasquez, the former Executive Assistant to Herrera, Leon asserts that he’s the victim of a criminal conspiracy, stating in his sworn declaration that April 3, 2023: “My name was on a list, and I became concerned someone inside the Federation of working on behalf of the accused Council members was trying to set me up, and set up others on the list for blame of the October 2021 Recording being recorded and disseminated. Santos Leon states that this action was pursuant to a “subpoena from the California Attorney General’s office.” The circumstances of Karla Vasquez’s departure from the LA Fed are in dispute; she says that she “resigned” in a sworn declaration, but Judge Pfahler writes that it was subsequent to a “workplace investigation.” This report remains secret.

It remains unknown which firm was hired to conduct the LA Fed’s internal investigation. Nor have Leon or Vasquez spoken with any members of the press, which might boost their credibility in the public eye. Instead, outside of sworn declarations, they’ve let their lawyers do the talking. This is probably a mistake, as Leon’s criminal defense attorney Bob Schwartz has asserted without any basis that “whoever did make the recording performed, as we now know, a great public service in the highest tradition of whistleblowers.” Schwartz similarly maintained that Santos Leon is "adamant” that he’s not the responsible party, which was initially the allegation made in Los Angeles’s Magazine’s coverage, that Leon was behind the recording as a jealous husband, and that Vasquez wasn’t party to the act. Perhaps this explains why they’ve retained separate counsels and that Leon’s attorneys response to the news was much more demure. Modesty is always good in practicing law on all occasions, as it allows for a slow and deliberate processing of facts.

So is there anything more to the story? It’s far from case closed yet. Attorney William Bloch, representing Santos Leon in his civil case with Kevin de León for invasion of privacy, negligence, and negligence per se, has stated that on an unknown date in October 2022, KDL and Cedillo went to the office of District Attorney George Gascón to pressure him to find evidence on Leon and Vasquez. Bloch has not offered any explanation for how he obtained this information, but when asked for comment, the District Attorney’s office referred the matter to “legal” to review their response after being raised to the attention of both Chief of Staff Tiffiny Blacknell and the DA’s Media Relations Division. For his part, the DA’s Charge Evaluation Worksheet is overstated, and despite the review by the DA’s Cyber Crime Division after the investigation by the LAPD Major Crimes Division was criticized for relying heavily upon the LA Fed’s internal investigation. Just what exactly is going on with this investigation?

To date, no determination of motive has been made by law enforcement. After all, if Santos Leon wasn’t recording Herrera and the others out of marital jealousy, as was reported by Los Angeles Magazine’s Michelle McPhee, then what was the motive? “The evidence indicates that a crime was committed by one or both of these individuals,” the document states, but it’s evidence is largely circumstantially based. The sole piece of seemingly firm electronic evidence, the internet protocol (IP), is unreliable and subject to spoofing, i.e., falsification. Electronic deception by unknown parties simply can’t be ruled out in this case. Who can say that this wasn’t computer hacking? A substantial level of reasonable doubt exists, which is why the cases were rejected; the evidence simply doesn’t sustain reasonable doubt or legal liability.

In fact, Santos Leon, in his sworn declaration, states that between 2013 and 2023, he never even had to reset his work computer password. Santos Leon further states, “I was aware that this was a common problem with all Federation computers, which as a result made the Federation’s computer data accessible to many people within the Federation and otherwise caused the Federation’s data to be unsecured and potentially vulnerable.” Santos Leon has a computer science degree, but that alone doesn’t mean he committed the crime in question, nor did he work in LA Fed’s Information Technology department. Plus, it suggests that Santos Leon, were he the responsible party, would know better than to lead an easily followed trail to his door. Asked for comment on the potential vulnerability of the LA Fed’s computer systems, a spokeswoman didn’t respond in time for publication. The LA Fed has previously stated that they “do not comment on pending litigation or investigations,” noting a focus on improving policy in relation to homelessness policy, among other items.

Whether LAPD will pursue any further investigation now that the potential criminal case against Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez has ended remains unclear. Asked for comment, LAPD’s Media Relations Division wasn’t initially aware of that the City Attorney had dropped the charges, before a spokesman stated: “It is closed on our end if they are not filing charges.” Asked for comment about the scope of their investigation and whether it had considered the source of the LA Fed Tapes as well as redistricting, the Office of Attorney General Rob Bonta declined comment, citing their “ongoing investigation.” It’s unclear if Kevin de León has been included in closed-door discussions about a settlement over redistricting with the City of Los Angeles while having been a party to the recording, which precipitated the AG’s investigation.

While the general public consensus has rallied around the exposure of the racist discussion, whether the leak itself was a political act designed to bait public outcry continues to remain an under-the-radar discussion minus one journalist. Richard Lee Abrams, writing in CityWatch LA, smartly noted, “One problem with leaking disinformation -- it allows people to divine what is in the works,” noting the questionable LAPD response and intense local politics with fierce ideological divide in LA between the DSA-LA on an electoral upswing, establishment Democrats led by Mayor Karen Bass, and the conservative faction heralded by Rick Caruso.

All of which left one question: if Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez weren’t guilty of the leak and had in fact had all charges dropped, would Councilmember Kevin de León still pursue his lawsuit against the couple? So I went to City Council on October 22, and on recess after Council had to break due to protest by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, I challenged De León over whether he would still pursue the matter. With a startled look on his face, De León sought to question me over who I was, prompting me to state I was a journalist and display my press pass, and he then stated, “Oh, I’ve heard of you,” with a sneer on his face suggesting that I was a nobody, to be grouped into the City Council gadflies. His spokesman, Pete Brown, didn’t immediately respond to request for comment over whether De León would pursue the matter.

Link: LA County Federation of Labor Scam

Link: Prosecutors will not file criminal charges against 2 people at center of Los Angeles racism scandal

Link: Who was behind the City Hall audio leak? The question may never be answered

Link: Tale of the Tape: L.A. City Council Scandal Rooted in Love, Not Politics

Link: D.A. sends audio leak eavesdropping probe back to LAPD for additional investigation

Link: District Attorney's Charge Evaluation Worksheet

Link: Los Angeles’ Cast of Cowards, Villains, and Dupes

Part 122: The LA Fed Tapes Leak – A Timeline of a Scandal in Los Angeles

Published October 22, 2024

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