Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said he has the support of most voters and will continue to do the work of the people despite half a million verified signatures of those who want him removed.
Gascon spoke to the local Fox affiliate in his first public interview since a failed recall effort, saying the campaign to oust him was “water under the bridge” and that he will move forward with plans to keep the community safe.
He didn’t say how he would mend relationships with 98% of prosecutors who backed his recall or why he has never met with any of them in person.
Instead, he said many prosecutors were bullied into supporting the recall, which was an anonymous vote of about 800 members of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys. The recall failed this week to qualify for the ballot when 520,050 valid signatures were counted, falling nearly 47,000 short.
“The large majority of the voters and the large majority of the community not only did not support a recall, they have supported me,” Gascon said. Prosecutors were “being badgered [to vote], and if they had not responded, they were being singled out and being harassed in the workplace.”
ADDA Vice President Eric Siddall called Gascon’s claims “a fantasy” and a conspiracy theory.
EFFORT TO RECALL LOS ANGELES COUNTY DA GASCON NOT OVER, GRASSROOTS GROUP SAYS
“Our election was fair and the ballot was secret,” Siddall told the Washington Examiner. “He claims people were harassed. We have not heard one complaint. The only person who has a history of bullying people is Mr. Gascon.”
A bipartisan committee of prosecutors, police, victims, and city officials desperately tried to recall Gascon over his stated policies of downgrading charges in order to lessen prison terms so criminals can be rehabilitated in the community.
The past two years have seen perpetrators of high-profile violent crimes, including murder, escaping lengthy prison terms only to re-offend. Gascon said this was his campaign platform and that Angelenos elected him to do this work.
“I was voted in on a very clear platform, and I want to make sure we continue to do the work that is going to make our community not only safer today but safer for future generations,” he said. “And that cannot include mass incarceration and systemic racism that has plagued the system. We have evolved from there, and that is a major component of what motivates me to do the work every day.”
Veteran Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said Gascon spends most of his time away from the office making speeches on social justice issues such as abortion and voting rights rather than working with police and victims.
“It is amazing the lack of responsibility he has for the illegal, unethical, and dangerous policies he is advocating,” Lewin said.
Gascon was asked by Fox about several jailhouse phone calls in which defendants boasted of lenient sentences and support for him, including child molester Hannah Tubbs, who is now charged with murder. Gascon alluded that this was a plot by his detractors.
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“Sometimes at the risk of violating a lot of confidentiality and other issues … we have seen jailhouse calls being carefully placed by some people in the public arena trying to embarrass me,” Gascon stated.
