Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., did the right thing when she accepted the resignation of a longtime staffer credibly accused of sexual harassment. But the California Democrat will be dogged by the controversy because of the timing.
Larry Wallace had served as director of the Division of Law Enforcement under then-Attorney General Harris, the Sacramento Bee reports. He was accused by a female executive assistant of “gender harassment,” specifically asking her repeatedly to crawl under his desk to change the paper in his printer while she wore skirts and dresses.
The lawsuit was filed on Dec. 30, 2016, when Harris was still attorney general but preparing to be sworn into the Senate. Her staff insists she had no idea for nearly two years.
“We were unaware of this issue and take accusations of harassment extremely seriously. This evening, Mr. Wallace offered his resignation to the senator, and she accepted it,” a spokeswoman Lily Adams wrote in an email to the Sacramento Bee.
Harris was also apparently unaware when she decided to hire Wallace in March 2017, even though the lawsuit wasn’t settled until later that May. Under the leadership of her successor Xavier Becerra, who was appointed to attorney general in her absence, the California Department of Justice reached a settlement with the female executive for $400,000.
As part of the deal, according to the Sacramento Bee, the female executive had to resign her position, agree never to seek employment at the California Department of Justice, and — most importantly — sign a nondisclosure agreement. She couldn’t discuss the settlement. It stayed quiet and out of the public eye until reporters started asking questions.
It is this timing that will haunt Harris as she mulls whether or not to launch a bid for president over the holiday season.
Harris has been consciously making a name for herself as a champion of the #MeToo movement. She was one of the first to call for the resignation of disgraced Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment. She followed up with grandstanding broadsides against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh months later. Now here, the best defense is ignorance.
Assume that the senator knew nothing of Wallace’s misconduct and nothing of the nondisclosure agreement his victim was forced to sign. This would mean that Harris was a hapless attorney general with no idea of what was going on inside her own Justice Department. This would also mean that Harris has been a hapless senator who doesn’t properly vet her staff.
This isn’t a good look. It is preferable to the other alternative, namely that Harris looked away from #MeToo allegations and made excuses for a favored staffer.
