REPORT: Newsom’s office refusing to release wildfire communications

There is a bit of a scandal taking place in California regarding exactly what officials knew and were doing about the wildfires that ripped through the state a few months ago.

After LA Mayor Karen Bass was caught deleting texts, now reports are surfacing that Governor Gavin Newsom is refusing to hand over his communications on the subject.

They Were Warned

Before the fires took place, there were warning signs that needed to be listened to on multiple fronts, but they were all ignored.

At the top of that list was a warning by LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley who had warned that budget cuts would negatively impact her department’s ability to conduct a large-scale response.

When Bass was asked about those cuts after the fires broke out, she responded, "There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days.

"The unprecedented wind storm, wind at such ferocity that we haven't seen in years, is the context in which we were dealing with this."

Deleting Texts

Over the last few weeks, there has been much made about Bass’ office ignoring warnings from the chief’s office as well as her travel to Ghana to attend a wedding when she had promised not to leave the country. She had even stated that domestic travel would only be related to her mayoral duties.

Then, last week, a report surfaced that Bass had been deleting texts related to the wildfires, claiming that her phone autodeletes all messages after 30 days. That is contrary to city and state laws that require all messages to be saved.

City attorney David Michaelson, however, is now claiming that the law does not include texts.

David Loy with the First Amendment Coalition pushed back, stating, "There is no way for the press and public to hold government fully accountable without access to all the information to do that.”

Newsom Joins the Party

Now, a report has broken stating that a local news outlet in California requested communications from Newsom’s office, and it was declined.

Reporter Jennifer Van Laar stated, "We did ask Gov. Newsom for his emails and text messages to and from LA County and LA City officials in the days leading up to and after the fires. We were told they would not be providing those and that the governor's communications are exempt."

Both Bass and Newsom continue to claim they are well within the law.

Bass is now fighting for her political life, and Newsom appears to be readying himself for a run at the White House, so I would think transparency would be key, but that is obviously not the case. I don’t know about Bass, but this will surely come back to bite Newsom if he decides to make a run for glory in 2028.