Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is facing fresh questions about what happened to her text messages after a whistleblower case turned a routine personnel dispute into a fight over whether key communications were produced or quietly wiped away during discovery.
Subpoenas turn up almost nothing
In new court filings, former criminal-branch chief Michelle McGinnis says she subpoenaed text messages between Feldstein Soto and Chief Deputy City Attorney Denise Mills and came up nearly empty. According to the filings, Feldstein Soto produced zero texts, and Mills produced just three, even though the subpoenas specifically asked for messages on Signal and other apps.
McGinnis argues that the outcome defies common sense and goes to the heart of her claims about why she was pushed out of the office. Her attorney says the near-total lack of messages between two top officials is central to the case. As reported by the Los Angeles Times.
City officials say they complied
The city attorney’s office is not buying the insinuation that something nefarious happened. The deputy city attorney representing Feldstein Soto and Mills blasted McGinnis’ latest petition as “uncomprehensible” and pointed out that the office has already turned over thousands of pages of documents to the plaintiff’s lawyers.
Feldstein Soto said in a declaration that she “diligently searched for any documents” and produced records related to McGinnis. Court papers state that Mills performed a factory reset of her phone after subpoenas were served, described as an effort to retrieve backups. McGinnis’ attorney calls that move tantamount to spoliation and argues “it is obviously relevant and critical…to see what Ms. Feldstein and Ms. Mills were saying to one another.” As reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Pattern at City Hall
This dust-up over missing messages is not happening in a vacuum. It lands on top of a steady stream of staff complaints and records clashes in the city attorney’s office and across City Hall, where some employees and watchdogs say there is a culture of intimidation and a habit of keeping official paper trails short…