LA Times Sues City Over Mayor Karen Bass’ Deleted Wildfire Texts

The paper accuses officials of violating city law by auto-deleting texts tied to the Los Angeles wildfires after 30 days The post LA Times Sues City Over Mayor Karen Bass’ Deleted Wildfire Texts appeared first on TheWrap.

Mar 28, 2025 - 20:22

LA Times Sues City Over Mayor Karen Bass’ Deleted Wildfire Texts

The Los Angeles Times is suing the city of LA, claiming text messages sent by Mayor Karen Bass while the city battled devastating wildfires earlier this year have been illegally deleted and withheld.

The Times’ lawsuit was filed on Thursday and reported by the paper on Friday.

Bass’ messages had been set to auto-delete after 30 days, falling well short of the two-year retention period the city’s administrative code calls for, the Times said.

City officials had told LA Times reporter Julia Wick that Bass’ messages in the days surrounding the Jan. wildfires had been deleted, before later telling her some of those messages were able to be recovered; city officials shared 125 of those deleted messages with Wick last week, but noted a number of other texts were “redacted and/or withheld” due to exemptions to the law. This week, on Wednesday, the Times ran a story showing some of Bass’ texts during the wildfires.

David Michaelson, counsel to Mayor Bass, had told Wick in an email earlier this month that Bass’ texts were “ephemeral” and did not have to be shared, according to the California Public Records Act. He also pointed to a 1981 Supreme Court case that said “fleeting thoughts and random bits of information” do not have to be turned over as part of public records requests.

“The Mayor’s office has responded to hundreds of public records requests since she was elected and we will continue to do so,” Michaelson commented to the Times on Friday. “The Mayor’s office released responsive texts to a PRA request from the Times last week and the Office will continue to respond to public record requests.”

The Times disagreed with Michaelson and the city’s assessment, arguing what Bass types on her phone — especially during an emergency — must be shared as part of a records request.

“The City’s apparent position that an official may delete a text communication at any time as ‘ephemeral’ until a public records request is received would destroy the presumption of access to public records,” The Times’ lawsuit said. “All a public official would have to do to avoid public scrutiny is destroy the texts immediately after creating them.”

Mayor Bass was in Ghana when the fires first hit LA on Jan. 7. She has been heavily criticized since then for leaving the city, despite being warned LA was facing increased risk of wildfires in early Jan. Bass has also been criticized for the city’s handling of the fires, which devastated communities like Pacific Palisades and Malibu near the coast to inland suburbs like Pasadena.

LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has been one of Bass’ more vocal critics in the aftermath, saying her leadership during the emergency raised “serious questions.” Soon-Shiong also said his paper made “a mistake” when it endorsed Bass during the 2022 election.

The post LA Times Sues City Over Mayor Karen Bass’ Deleted Wildfire Texts appeared first on TheWrap.