Column: Kevin de León says he’s sorry but won’t resign. Kevin, stop gaslighting L.A. voters | News | Los Angeles Times http://lat.ms/2mPq3cW
Los Angeles City Council member Kevin de León announced on Thursday that he won’t resign following allegations by the LA Times that he pressured a woman to fabricate sexual abuse allegations against him to win a public employee race.
“I want to take a moment to say personally what I’m not going to do,” said de León, 49, who is running for an open seat on the City Council on Tuesday.
“I have a job that I believe I am qualified for,” he said. “The allegations that these so-called journalists have come up with do not hold up and they are false.”
The Times’s story on its website on Oct. 18 detailed de León’s efforts to pressure a female assistant city attorney for public information in 2012 to say she had been sexually abused beginning when she was in the fourth grade.
According to a summary of the allegations in the Times story, the attorney, Nicole Swaney, said de León told her in 2012 at a City Hall meeting that he’d done nothing wrong and accused her of lying at a time she was seeking a new job.
De León said he would not resign from his City Council seat, which he has held since 2014.
“I will continue to work hard to improve the city of Los Angeles, the people of the city of Los Angeles, the people and the organizations that work for the people. I will do everything in my power to make sure we have a great city for the people of this city,” he said.
As for what he will do instead, de León says he is “reconsidering” his positions on various issues.
“I have not fully and completely reviewed every position that I’ve held in the city of Los Angeles, but I have spoken with many individuals over the years and I have the best interest of the people of Los Angeles at heart. I will continue working