Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León and former Councilmember Gil Cedillo, two of four powerful figures who were secretly taped as they made racist comments and discussed how to get more Latinos on the City Council, are suing two former labor union employees they believe played a role in leaking the backroom discussion.
The leak set off a political firestorm of media coverage a year ago. Among other leaders, President Joe Biden urged the four figures heard on the tape to resign, and two of those powerful leaders did so — L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez and L.A. County Federation of Labor head Ron Herrera.
But de León and Cedillo are fighting back. In separate but similar lawsuits filed last week, the two claimed that the discussion was illegally recorded and that the audio leak damaged their reputations.
In the complaints filed in L.A. County Superior Court, both de León and Cedillo named as defendants two former employees at the L.A. County Federation of Labor (L.A. Fed). Cedillo’s lawsuit said, “there is no doubt that the parties responsible for the recording committed a felony under California law.”
Cedillo’s lawsuit left open the possibility that others who work for, or are affiliated with, the federation also could be identified as defendants. Cedillo is also suing L.A. Fed itself.
The October 2021 bare-knuckled conversation that created a media firestorm took place during a private meeting at L.A. Fed’s headquarters. In July of this year, investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department served a search warrant at the home of two L.A. Fed employees. But to date, investigators have not publicly identified either person as a suspect who secretly taped the meeting, and no arrests have been made.
A spokesperson for L.A. Fed said Tuesday that a representative for the organization, which is a federation of about 300 union and labor organizations representing more than 800,000 members, would respond to a request for…
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