Part 133: A Whistleblower Thanksgiving in America – Why Courage Still Matters Here

Published November 26, 2024.

Nov 27, 2024

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Every so often, I’ve written explicitly about whistleblowing, and in fact that was the intention of this series as much as any further investigation. Strangely, my whistleblower story never quite took off for a couple reasons. First, and foremost, the normalization of sexual violence on college campuses is a significant problem, but it’s a private problem, as are the legal processes of Title IX that keep such things confidential. So me coming out with a legal drama story raised as many questions about why someone like me might want to care about such topics. Most importantly, the cameras were already long gone; George Tyndall was in 2018. The outrageous lapses of USC’s campus safety in October 2021 in warning of drug-facilitated sexual assaults on Fraternity Row were as easily forgettable. Finally, the basic question of compliance isn’t exciting after all; don’t we just kind of assume these things are supposed to happen, no matter what a Resolution Agreement might say?

To the best of my knowledge, USC is still under monitoring by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, for what it’s worth, and it needs to be, because USC has done shamefully little to build trust through transparency. Secondly, despite the LA Fed Tapes making a huge scandalous splash. The sin of omission by the Los Angeles Times and the cover-up in progress that I’ve alleged have continued, and [CENSORED], that’s effective. Los Angeles print media, for example, consists of the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Magazine, a few legal and business trade publications, and some brave independent outlets that I highly suggest you support, such as the Los Angeles Public Press and the L.A. Taco, because they’re doing journalism and not just media. Now that’s not to say the Times doesn’t have some great journalists, because they do, but I certainly question at this point what exactly goes on with their editors there, like a number of others, including the New York Times. I really don’t feel so bad lately asking these questions about the media.

Most importantly, never mind that the accused whistleblowers, two former LA Fed employees, not only deny responsibility for the act, but one has alleged in court that it’s just about, as I say, a conspiracy at work, going to the highest-level of government even, including the State Attorney General’s office. The degree of investigative journalism, much less targeted investigation like that which it took to break Watergate open, is pretty low. The national media has long ago moved on to new stories because, frankly, they don’t care what happens in Los Angeles (paging Donald Trump?). Let’s just admit it, in the City of Angels, some people are above and beyond the law. In the odd event that Mark Ridley-Thomas wriggles out of being convicted of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud, the chilling effect might not even be that great.

After all, does it really matter that a few brave employees went to bat against corruption (replace with nepotism) that might not even be found illegal in the end? According to journalist Jon Regardie writing in the conservative Westside Current, MRT has even secured the legal advice of a former judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who writes, “but if there’s such a thing as a ringer in the Appellate Court world, or at least someone with an idea of what the judges will unleash, it’s [Paul] Watford.” I couldn’t get a ringer like that even if I tried, and only a few are even willing to support this publication, and certainly I don’t have a legal fund like Ridley-Thomas, who faces 3.5 years in prison. The increasing probability that the U.S. Attorney’s Office could lose this case is very real, and if you ask me, in failing to hold people to account, including my former supervisor, they opened the window to the idea that justice wasn’t really being served, much less manipulated for political advantage.

There actually isn’t a single whistleblower support organization in California. For those needing support, really, as far as I know, there are only two organizations, Whistleblower Aid and Whistleblowers of America, and the latter has an open door to the average client. In fact, in real-life terms, it’s attorneys who form the safety net, and most importantly in the interest of money, plus or minus employment attorney’s. On September 30, 2024, a federal judge in Florida ruled the False Claims Act, including what are known as qui tam, or fraud recovery lawsuits, unconstitutional in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. In Trump’s America, whistleblowing just might get even more scarce, provided it’s not overturned and goes national. Trump himself has routinely expressed views that could be interpreted as anti-whistleblower. Decrying those who spoke out against his prior administration and stating his intention to target political appointments, clearly the advice to most would-be whistleblowers at this point would be to say, just don’t do it. As a journalist, I’m often contacted by such individuals and have even sought out some as sources, but mostly people don’t have what they think they have in hand.

So does the courage it takes to buck the norm and speak the truth still matter? Moreover, does anonymous whistleblowing online even work? Before you run onto Reddit and spill your guts, much less start a Substack, I’d encourage people to always talk with a lawyer first. For the most part, attorney’s want simple, clean-cut cases and not years of history, no matter how many emails or documents you have that you think might prove a case. No one will read that, so really the game is having enough money in the first place to self-finance a legal case. Also, don’t count on the media or reporters; for the most part, they’re pretty sure of themselves absent it being totally spelled out and shocking. Most people, myself included, aren’t always the best advocates. To the extent that I hope this Substack has shamed the University of Southern California and let them know that at least someone is watching for what goes on behind closed doors there, I’ll never give up. But what about LA? Is it just hopelessly corrupt to the point that unless you’re coming up with a José Huizar cash-filled tequila box, don’t even dare?

Whistleblowing is an enormous risk, perhaps even a career-ender, and there’s no money in writing. So the odds are, you could go bankrupt and lose just about anything, and would you really like to do that for an ethical principle? In Donald Trump’s America, but even before that, most employers simply couldn’t be trusted, much less after they felt threatened. The bosses are in control, and you’re not. At best, it could take years to recover your losses by collecting a settlement and at what costs. A José Huizar racketeering whistleblower recently collected $3 million after years of litigation. The cost was having his duties scaled back before being terminated, which led to depression, including suicidal ideation. Studies have suggested that this isn’t uncommon in the whistleblowing world; in fact, unless you’re blowing the whistle the bosses want and actually protect you, it’s almost a guarantee. “Arrest me,” former building and safety chieftain Ray Chan had said before being sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute my boss for conspiracy with Ridley-Thomas despite the Los Angeles Times publishing his incriminating emails. No wonder people don’t think that MRT is being served justice, and in fact, you can hear an entire debate about it on the LA Fed Tapes that never quite got the newsprint attention that it deserved. What would they find?

Sentencing for disgraced attorney Tom Girardi has been pushed back two weeks from December 6 to December 20. One of the two U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted him has already checked out and is on his way for new legal waters (including where he’ll apparently get to work against Girardi again), but just wait for those victim impact statements. I’m sure they’ll cook Girardi, maybe, or maybe not? At the Girardi trial, they even trotted out his secretaries in his defense to try and argue what exactly, he didn’t know he was stealing from his clients? His public defenders had all but chased the Girardi & Keese whistleblower out of the hearings, afraid that she might get too much attention in the hallway while trying to force her on to the stand to do exactly what? The desperation is real, so even as Tom Girardi enjoys his last Thanksgiving perhaps as a free man, I’ll hope that he gets his time behind bars before he croaks, because we at USC know how that goes; the slow walking of cases is very real.

When they want you, they want you? But otherwise you might be toast. Employers want people they can trust, as someone once told me, and that doesn’t mean a whistleblower, which is seen as the equivalent of being a snitch, no matter the circumstances. Dean Marilyn Flynn complained of literally being traumatized by the extent to which Rick Caruso’s campaign politicized her actions with Mark Ridley-Thomas before her sentencing. In not throwing the book at USC for going along with the scheme before reporting it to the FBI, the Feds missed a chance to show that white-collar crime doesn’t pay. Not that it matters at USC at this point after Operation Varsity Blues put the hit on Athletics, but it never quite went as far as it should have, and even Rick Singer, the mastermind of the scheme, got off easy. Parents are still trying to litigate their way out of responsibility. Singer is already out and back in business, claiming to have committed a “victimless crime.” Singer says on his website for IDFutures that, “The Lessons I learned from my past experience is to team up with the best legal minds and university institutional partners to help me operate my passion the right way.” I can still remember him smirking at me in 2017.

The very idea of accountability now seems foreign and remote to me, to the extent that frankly, I’m not even sure if believing in the justice system matters. Despite a scofflaw youth, perhaps because of genetics, I liked to believe that it was true. But instead, this really seems like a hit-and-miss proposition. It’s like Nury Martinez says on the LA Fed Tapes about Mark Ridley-Thomas’s predicament and white people, “They get the best attorneys in the, in the city to defend them and spin their bullshit.” As Jon Regardie noted about Ridley-Thomas’s movement for his freedom, “Many times in the past few months I’ve had discussions with people who follow this stuff, and we try to name a politician besides Ridley-Thomas who would engender this kind of community support, with the crowds showing up time and again, more than three years after the original indictment.” Well Jon, here’s one, Rick Caruso. The idea that Caruso would ever be found in violation of any law is almost blasphemous to his followers.

Before we get to the Caruso section of the LA Fed Tapes that will never be covered, it’s important to remember Kevin de León discussing the dynamic in comparison after talking about leakers: “It’s like if you’re, say if you’re Exxon, an oil company, and you committed all of these, these illegal acts and then you go to the Department of Justice and say, ‘Hey, we just found out from a whistleblower from within our, you know, ranks that this happens.’” That whistleblower was actually a real person, one I’d even discussed the matter with, and man, can I remember the blushing, oops? Don’t do that with a politician, is what I’d say. For all the favoritism and nepotism in the world, it’s important to remember that unless you’re throwing down something politically advantageous; embarrassing the company isn’t going to get you anywhere because the boss is always right, even when he’s dead wrong. I never agreed with the culture of corruption at USC, even as I came face-to-face with it, because I know that there are human limits, whether it’s money or power. Rick Singer’s crime wasn’t victimless, and if MRT gets off, Marilyn Flynn is going to feel like a fool for having fled out, la viejita (the little old lady) as she gets called. I used to serve her coffee like my grandma, it had nothing do with ageism, that’s just how people are in life. And you only get to live once, so again, I don’t advise anyone to become a whistleblower.

Los Angeles might not have burned in 2022 like it did in 1992. Even the Los Angeles City Council seems to slowly be getting past its troubles. Few listened to me, but I like to think that by pointing to the incriminating evidence and by telling my story of reporting the audio leak scandal that I suspected was about to happen and the dirty chicanery of USC, maybe people were at least more aware. Could anything have saved me? Bankruptcy from being all but seemingly blacklisted with a social media search is sadly extremely real. You get ghosted for having looked like you actually give a flying [REDACTED]. Spending less time on journalism in 2024, in a country that doesn’t care—that’s in fact being just about the brazen love of criminality—seems more promising. Life goes on, but do you bear the scars you earned? Does freedom even matter anymore in 21st century America, much less a place like Los Angeles, or are we simply slaves to a mighty hammer of injustice, hoping for one day, our chance in court? The sad truth is that this country is on a path to fewer whistleblowers, not more, unless you’re politically right.

Politics still matter. So don’t have the wrong one’s in mind; otherwise, you’ll be a real whistleblower rather than a pretender, and man, there are some pretenders. The mental health damage of whistleblowing is real, and a real whistleblower is essentially an investigator; even more than simple reporting, they’re digging for the truth. What’s the truth? And more importantly, does the law matter here? Is it significant? What are the odds that you’re simply mistaken? My greatest fear, that we’ll prosecute innocent people over the LA Fed Tapes, at least seems to be over, and I could tell it was coming. Despite the best bumbling of the LAPD, the District Attorney’s Office, and the City Attorney’s Office, all as trustworthy as rattlesnakes (who I actually quite enjoy), they didn’t go for the obvious to the full extent of the law. No one is perfect.

Now about Kevin de León’s lawsuit, we’ll see if it gets to June, but if the last few weeks of Kevin de León’s life have proven one thing, it’s that he’s bearing quite a burden along with the hangover. No wonder he seems to loathe my very presence at Los Angeles City Council. Blanching, glaring, dismissing, and just about everything else he can do to avoid the truth coming out. Keep it up, Kevin, you’ve still got a few more days left. “Number two ... whoever did make the recording performed, as we now know, a great public service in the highest tradition of whistleblowers,” the accused attorney’s claimed after the charges were rejected. “Insufficient evidence,” the City Attorney’s statement said. Kevin de León’s finger pointed, but would he tell the truth? Not even to save face? His political career is over. See how that worked out.

And so the transcript read, immortalized for all history for everyone’s plain sight:

Kevin de León: They really went after it. I was with Gene Block yesterday from UCLA and we’re at this event for the Chinese massacre, at UCLA. They’re really combative. … When the L.A. Times gets a bug up their ass, you know, they just like… So I talked to Sam Garrison the other day, who is the GR [government representative], he reports directly to Carol Folt.
Nury Martinez: The son of Jim Garrison?
Kevin de León: Yeah, the son of Jim Garrison. He told me that a couple of reporters got Pulitzer Prizes.
Nury Martinez: For the investigation?
Kevin de León: For the investigation. That what they’re doing has legs, just keep it going, just keep it going, just keep it going.

Whoops. I’ll look forward to seeing Ysabel Jurado in his seat soon, even as I’ll miss KDL, who has seemingly been banished out to the political wilderness to find a new course in life. I’ll make no apologies for thinking that free and fair elections matter. Moreover, sometimes the truth is plain enough for everyone to see. As Los Angeles Times journalist Gustavo Arellano wrote about the end of Kevin de León’s run on City Council, “As I walked back to my car, I turned back for one last look at De León,” and adding: “His cleaning crew was sweeping up litter from the street while their boss talked and talked and talked.” Kevin may have just talked too much for his own good.

Link: Los Angeles Public Press

Link: L.A. Taco

Link: As Mark Ridley-Thomas’ Fights for His Freedom, L.A. Remains Deeply Divided

Link: Whistleblower Aid

Link: Whistleblowers of America

Link: Federal Court Holds Qui Tam Provision of False Claims Act Unconstitutional

Link: Reddit Whistleblowers Forum

Link: L.A. Building and Safety whistleblower to get $3-million settlement from the city

Link: Tom Girardi prosecutor joins Chicago law firm that spurred Girardi's downfall

Link: Rick Singer, man behind 'Varsity Blues' college admissions scandal, is again advising students

Link: Inside the room: The entire L.A. City Council racist audio leak, annotated by our experts

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