The Brief
- Mayor Karen Bass’ text messages from the first days of the January wildfires were deleted, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
- After a public records request for Bass’ text messages from Jan. 7 and 8 related to the fires, the Times said the city had “no responsive records.”
- City lawyer David Michaelson said Bass’ phone is set to auto-delete messages.
- Michaelson argued state public record laws don’t apply to text messages.
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass‘ text messages from the early days of the Palisades Fire were deleted, according to a new report from the Los Angeles Times.
Deleted text messages
What we know:
Bass was in Ghana when the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out on Jan. 7, and spent much of the next day traveling the more than 7,500 miles back to Los Angeles.
She and her office said she was in communication with city officials while she was traveling back to LA. In a March 7 report from the LA Times, the newspaper said it had filed a public records request to find out just what Bass and city officials were saying about the situation.…