[Garcetti,

about Jacobs’ behavior.

Many of the staffers who worked under Seligman and Jacobs at the time told The Times they did not recall the incident.

Only Becca MacLaren, Garcetti’s speechwriter, has gone on the record with her account. The other workers, including several who have left the mayor’s office, asked to remain anonymous, saying they didn’t want to be caught up in the anger and recrimination swirling around the case.

Seligman has accused those casting doubt on the kissing incident of being part of a culture of silence in the mayor’s office.

She testified that she went to then-Chief of Staff Ana Guerrero to report the forced kiss, but Guerrero merely “shook her head, rolled her eyes [and] got her sort of blank angry stare.” Seligman said Guerrero took no action because Jacobs was seen as an “untouchable,” valued for his fundraising prowess and close ties to Garcetti and his wife.

In her testimony in the Garza case, Guerrero denied receiving a sexual harassment complaint about Jacobs, from Seligman or anyone else. She depicted the mayor’s office as sensitive to such concerns and said immediate action would have been taken to resolve any problem.

The chief of staff and others acknowledged seeing Jacobs kiss people on the lips in social situations but said it did not seem unwanted or inappropriate.

Talk in the office

Much of the other evidence surrounding the Jacobs furor does not go directly to Garcetti’s knowledge but suggests that many people in the mayor’s office talked about the top aide’s behavior.

Emmerling testified that soon after she signed on as communications director in 2017, other workers told her that Jacobs was a problematic figure, saying he was “sexually inappropriate, he’s a bully . ... He’s got a lot of power.”

Henry Casas, former director of Garcetti’s Office of Public Engagement, said he was subjected to unwanted massages and other touching by Jacobs and witnessed the same behavior toward Garza.

Casas also testified that the acts were “common knowledge” in the mayor’s office but that he never complained and did not recall misconduct that Garcetti had witnessed.

Investigator Leslie Ellis, who interviewed Jacobs, wrote in a follow-up report given to the city in April that Jacobs “possibly squeezed Mr. Casas’ arms because Mr. Casas invited the conduct.” Ellis wrote that Mr. Casas “liked to display his physical presence” and rolled up his sleeves, “making it clear that he was strong. In that context, Mr. Jacobs possibly squeezed Mr. Casas’ arms.”

Former Garcetti spokeswoman Anna Bahr said last month that sexual harassment by Jacobs was “something everyone talked about” in the mayor’s office.

The texts

Testimony showed that Garcetti spokesman Alex Comisar sent a text to a coworker in which he commented: “Got hit on by Rick again.” Comisar later testified that he did not know what the message meant. He also told lawyers in the Garza case that he could not recall ever complaining about Jacobs’ behavior.

Garza’s lawyer recently released another message thread, this one between Bahr and her onetime boss, Emmerling, who gave the messages to the attorney.

“He abused me and harassed me the whole time he worked in the mayor’s office,” Bahr wrote.

“Kiss on the lips?” Emmerling responded. “Yes of course,” Bahr replied. “Squeezes.”

Bahr said in an interview that regardless of what she wrote in the messages, the abuse and harassment she endured was not physical or sexual in nature. She said she personally experienced “mean” and unpleasant behavior by Jacobs, though she knew others had been targeted with sexual harassment.

In their exchange of messages, Emmerling urged Bahr to “reach out” to others about her Jacobs complaints.

“I’m not getting in the mix,” Bahr responded. “And I don’t want to bring down Eric.”

Other claims

Two men who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Times that they were groped or harassed by Jacobs at social events. Other accounts of Jacobs’ alleged behavior were outlined in a New York magazine story by Yashar Ali.

Mayor’s statements

In deposition testimony, Garcetti denied that he heard his former aide talk explicitly about sex, saying such behavior would be “completely out of character” for Jacobs. The mayor also said he never saw Jacobs forcibly hug or kiss anyone aside from his loved ones.

Last month, the mayor said he’s “satisfied that [the Ellis] investigation was both thorough and independent.”

Asked if he believes it could be true that Jacobs sexually harassed city staffers, Garcetti said, “There’s no new allegations vis-a-vis me. I’ve been very consistent. I don’t care if you’re my best friend or worst enemy. This is something that I care about. And had I ever known about if these alleged things have happened, I would have taken immediate action to deal with [it].”

With a calendar packed with other priorities and a two-week spring recess, the Senate is not expected to act on Garcetti’s nomination until late April, at the earliest.