After his recall attempt, the second since last year, failed to qualify for a ballot initiative on Monday, progressive Los Angeles district attorney George Gascón claimed that his fellow prosecutors were pressured into backing the referendum.
In February, 97.9 percent of the front-line prosecutors in the Association of Deputy District Attorneys charged with carrying out DA Gascón’s policies voted for his recall.
“Even when there was a vote of no confidence I happen to know a lot of people called me and reached out to me and said they were being badgered. If they had not responded they were being singled out they were being harassed in the workplace,” Gascón told Fox 11.
Gascón said some prosecutors personally contacted him to express that they had been badgered into supporting the recall effort even though they did not believe that he had neglected his duty.
The petition to recall Gascón failed to qualify for a ballot on Monday due to an insufficient number of signatures. While 715,833 petition signatures were collected, over 100,000 were nullified, falling short of the 566,857 valid-signature benchmark.
“Based on the examination and verification, which conducted in compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the California Government Code, Elections Code, and Code of Regulations, 520,050 signatures were found to be valid and 195,783 were found to be invalid,” County clerk Dean C. Logan’s office said in a press release.
Jon Hatami, Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, told Fox News that Gascón’s comments were simply to try to save face after his colleagues joined in to call for his ousting.
“The vote of the DDA’s to support or not support his recall was done over the internet, individually and confidentially. There was no way anyone would know how anyone else voted, where they voted, when they voted, or even if they did or didn’t vote,” Hatami said.
“George is completely embarrassed by the vote and he lacks the ability to lead this office by example,” he said. “He continues to lie, gaslight and deflect from his failed and dangerous policies which have only made Los Angeles less safe. He knows it. His DDA’s know it. And the public knows it.”
Like former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, who was recalled in June, Gascón has come under fire from residents and inside the profession for his alleged mismanagement of city priorities, namely law enforcement. He has been accused of favoring a soft-on-crime rather than a crackdown-policy approach that some claim has fueled the area’s homicide and theft spike.