Mr. Garcetti himself was never accused of misconduct. But a former member his security detail, who has sued the city, accused his former deputy chief of staff of sexual harassment. The officer and a second former city employee, who served as communications director, said that Rick Jacobs, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser in the Los Angeles gay community and top mayoral adviser, had made sexual remarks and gestures and had acted inappropriately toward subordinates. They claimed that Mr. Garcetti had known and had failed to act on complaints about it.
In the days leading up to the vote, another person who claimed to have been harassed and assaulted by Mr. Jacobs shared personal stories with the chiefs of staff of Democratic and Republican senators. The person insisted on anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Those conversations appeared to have swayed some senators. Ms. Hirono had previously indicated she planned to support Mr. Garcetti. But on Wednesday she said in a statement that “earlier this week I received additional information that, when taken in its totality with the information already available, has led me to be a ‘no’ on Mr. Garcetti’s nomination.”
Mr. Garcetti has said that he “never witnessed” the alleged harassment, and that none of those incidents were ever brought to his attention. He added that, had he known, he would have acted to stop it because addressing abuse in the workplace is “a core issue” for him.
But the nomination hit a snag when Naomi Seligman, his former communications director, began publicly pressing to hold him accountable for alleged misconduct in his office and Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, released the 23-page report detailing sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Garcetti’s former aide and the likelihood that Mr. Garcetti knew or should have been aware.
“Senators on both sides of the aisle have seen extensive credible evidence that Mr. Garcetti enabled a sexual predator at City Hall for years and lied about it in his confirmation hearing,” Ms. Seligman said in a statement. “If it weren’t for political pressure from the White House, this nomination would never reach the Senate floor.”
The White House called the report “partisan” and “a hit job from the beginning,” adding that “many of the claims have already been conclusively debunked by more serious independent reports.” Mr. Garcetti’s parents — his father is a former Los Angeles County district attorney — spent at least $90,000 on a lobbyist to defend him.
