Los Angeles City Councilman John Lee Accused Of Violating Ethics Laws back to 2016

According to a new report by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission released on Tuesday, LA City Councilman John Lee stands accused of violating several ethics laws dating back to 2016 when he was then on the staff of former Councilman Mitchell Englander.

Englander, who served as a Los Angeles City Councilman representing several San Fernando Valley cities from 2011 until his resignation in December 2018, had first been accused of wrongdoing in 2017 while still serving as a Councilman. According to the U.S. v. Englander indictment, Englander had been paid to visit Las Vegas and Palm Springs in June 2017 by people lobbying for the city. During the Las Vegas trip between June 1 and June 2, Englander and some city staffers received rooms, limo rides, escort services, some casino chips, a $2,400 dinner, and a $34,000 nightclub experience. He is also alleged to have been given an envelope with $10,000 in cash in the casino’s bathroom. Less than two weeks later in Palm Springs, Englander allegedly was given another envelope of money in a bathroom, this time with $5,000 inside.

The FBI subsequently questioned him several times in 2017 and 2018 before finally bringing charges against him. An indictment was issued to Englander in 2020, with Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, former Huizar aide George Esparza, and former deputy Mayor Raymond Chan also receiving bribery, racketeering, and other similar charges during the same FBI investigation. Englander’s grand jury indictment specifically charged him with one count of participating in a scheme to falsify material facts, three counts of making false statements, and three counts of witness tampering. While initially quiet, the matter became public in March 2020 following Englander’s surrender to the FBI. He then pled guilty in July, taking a plea deal to only be sentenced on a felony count of scheming to falsify material facts.

Englander was subsequently sentenced to 14 months in prison in January 2021. Englander’s lawyer attempted to get him home confinement with no prison time, but U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter instead ordered 14 months in a federal prison and to pay a $15,000 fine – the same amount Englander was accused of taking in bribes. While initially scheduled to be released from prison in May 2022, he was released in February and has since remained out of the public eye.

Ethics Commission looks into Lee

According to the Ethics Commission, probable cause exists that shows that Lee “violated governmental ethics laws by accepting gifts in excess of the gift limit, failing to report gifts, misusing his City position, and aiding and abetting another person’s misuse of a City position.”

In Particular, Lee, who at the time was Englander’s Chief of Staff, accepted multiple gifts from a businessperson and a developer, most of which exceeded the gift limit. Lee then failed to publicly disclose those gifts over the following years, including when he ran for City Council in a 2019 special election and the 2020 general election.

While Lee was questioned by the FBI at the same time of Englander, the Ethics commission found that he aided Englander in misleading the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) over the 2017 Las Vegas trip gifts and reimbursements. They also found that Lee was involved thanks to a social media post, leading to the Ethics Commission finding that Lee had violated government ethics laws.

“In the wake of a 2020 USAO announcement of its investigation into the 2017 Las Vegas trip and a social media post revealing Lee’s involvement in the trip, the Director of Enforcement initiated an investigation and determined that an enforcement action should be commenced against Lee,” the Ethics commission said in their report. “A probable cause conference was conducted on August 31, 2023, and the attached accusation was served on Lee on September 26. The accusation details the laws that were allegedly violated and sets forth the acts with which Lee is charged: two counts of accepting excess gifts, three counts of failing to disclose gifts, four counts of misusing a City position, and one count of aiding and abetting the misuse of a City position.”

“A finding of probable cause does not constitute a finding that a violation actually occurred. The maximum penalty that the commissioners may levy is the greater of $5,000 per violation or three times the amount of money that was improperly received or reported.”

In a response on Tuesday, Lee vehemently denied the accusations made by the commission, and called the 20 month investigation into him a waste of taxpayer money.

Lee responds

“Today, the City Ethics Commission released an accusation against me that is misguided and based on conjecture instead of actual evidence,” said Lee. “For the last 20 months, Commission investigators have wasted critical taxpayer resources to investigate a dinner in 2016 that I do not recall attending, have drastically inflated the amount of food and beverages I consumed during a June 2017 trip in Las Vegas during my final 11 days as a City Council staff member, and lodged accusations that are completely false.”

“The Commission falsely states that the FBI started an investigation into whether I accepted gifts. Further, they falsely state I attempted to mislead the FBI. Both accusations are categorically false. Commission investigators opted to first contact me in 2022, nearly five years after the events in question took place. Conveniently, investigators have ignored the statute of limitations to ensure their accusations line up with my 2024 re-election.”

“In my 20 year career with the City, I have never received an ethics violation. When departing city service, I voluntarily and proactively contacted the Ethics Commission to ensure I understood my obligations upon leaving City service.”

“I also know my actions and stand by my record. I refuse to be bullied by investigators that are seemingly more focused on garnering headlines than pursuing facts, evidence and the truth, even at the expense of people’s reputations. For these reasons, I will vigorously fight these baseless accusations and will never apologize for representing the people who live and work in Council District 12.”

Legal experts told the Globe on Tuesday that where the commission will ultimately stand on the accusations, as well as what, if any, penalties are to be given to Lee.

“The Ethics Commission isn’t a court,” said Los Angeles lawyer Thomas Cruz Jr. “There’s no jail or anything like that. They’re looking into everyone who ran for office in LA, or was elected in, or worked for the city, or did business with the city. They help administer the laws and are meant to work on behalf of the public to keep everything on the up and up in city government and elections.”

“Lee is only being accused and they only have probable cause. These things did happen a while ago, but they are also tied in with the whole Englander thing, so it makes sense that they have kept looking into this. And they’re an impartial Commission. They don’t unfairly target people and they don’t time these things based on elections. Lee is trying to say that investigators are trying to hurt his 2024 election, but that just isn’t the case. It’s just how long it took to look into this. You have to remember too, there has been a COVID backlog and, this being LA, there have been a lot of investigations going on. It’s just when they got to it.”

An administrative evidentiary hearing is due to be heard soon, where it will be determined  what, if any, penalties should be given to Lee.