A top American Senator has called for a thorough investigation into allegations against Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is the ambassadorial nominee to New Delhi, involving his office, saying the US owes it to India to send a qualified diplomat who will represent the values of the country.
The confirmation of Garcetti, 51, by the Senate has been pending for several months now, mainly because of the opposition from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.
On Thursday, Grassley took the Senate floor to reiterate that he will continue to oppose the nomination of Garcetti till the investigations being conducted by his staff are complete and he is satisfied with it.
"The United States owes it to the Republic of India to send them a qualified Ambassador that will represent the values of the United States. Mayor Garcetti may very well be fully qualified, but at this time, the Senate needs to look into these allegations further,” he said.
"So, until my staff and I have conducted a thorough investigation and are able to speak with everyone involved, I cannot vote to confirm Mr Garcetti," Grassley said.
Giving details, Grassley said he has received multiple whistleblower complaints that Garcetti witnessed and was aware that his deputy chief of staff, Rick Jacobs, sexually harassed city employees.
Two weeks ago, he had said that there needs to be an investigation. He had also called for review of the investigation that the city of Los Angeles had commissioned which had cleared Garcetti of any wrongdoing.
"At the time, I instructed my staff to complete this investigation in no more than two weeks, since it is not my intent to drag this out. My staff spoke with additional whistleblowers and subsequently made three separate requests to representatives of the mayor to send us the city's investigative report - on March 11, 18, and 21,” he said on the Senate floor.
Grassley said the mayor's staff provided him with a copy of the report on March 21.
"However, we were just notified last night, March 23, that there was also an updated report, along with a summary that was completed several months after the original report that my office received on March 21. While I am still reviewing this report, my staff informs me that the report is focused exclusively on allegations made that Mr Jacobs sexually harassed an LAPD officer," he said.
It does not address other allegations made, including allegations that Jacobs had sexually harassed the mayor's senior staff and made racist comments toward staff in front of the mayor, Grassley said.
"Due to the extremely narrow scope of this report, the fact that many of the allegations brought to my office were not investigated in that report, and the fact that we only received the updated report last night, I have instructed my staff to continue investigating these allegations,” he said.
Grassley said it is not his intent to drag this out and he anticipates that his investigation will be concluded in the near future.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
