How #MeToo advocate Kamala Harris’ office paid out more than $1 million in sexual harassment and retaliation cases…but she didn’t know what was going on

With Kamala Harris now the Democratic presidential nominee, there has been renewed attention for the more than $1.1 million the California Department of Justice paid to settle claims from employees who alleged they were sexually harassed or retaliated against by colleagues when she was the state’s attorney general.

The payments were made from 2011 to 2017 and first came to light in 2019, when Harris was a California senator and announced her candidacy for president in the 2020 election. Before becoming a senator, she oversaw the California Department of Justice.

Harris, an advocate and supporter of the #MeToo movement, said she was unaware of the allegations until today. Los Angeles Timeswho brought the story of the payments out into the open and drew attention to it.

She dropped out of the 2020 primaries and went on to become Joe Biden’s running mate. After Biden dropped out of the presidential race last month, she became the Democratic nominee. If she wins the November election, she will become the first female president of the United States.

Harris has made women’s reproductive rights one of her key issues in the fight. The overturning of Roe v. Wade proved a motivating factor for many women — and Democrats in general — to vote in the 2022 midterms. The party hopes she will do the same this cycle.

When the allegations came to light in 2019, the #MeToo movement was at its height and there was increased attention to the harassment issues women face in the workplace.

Harris took responsibility for the payments, even though she said she knew nothing about them.

“As the director of a department with nearly 5,000 employees, the responsibility fell on me,” she said at the time. “No one should have to endure harassment or bullying in the workplace, and victims of sexual misconduct should be heard, believed and protected.”

The claims include allegations that DOJ employees sexually harassed and retaliated against coworkers. The incidents allegedly included inappropriate touching and instances in which employees were made uncomfortable by the comments and actions of others.

Mike Genest, former chief financial officer for the state of California, told the Los Angeles Times that it is common practice at large agencies for claims to be investigated and handled by managers subordinate to the agency, and those managers may not be aware of it.

Complaints against senior managers can be brought to the attention of the department head, depending on how he or she wants to be kept informed, he said.

However, the revelations did have consequences for Harris.

One of her regular employees had to resign after a long time. The Sacramento Bee inquired about a $400,000 settlement for harassment and retaliation while working for Harris at the California Department of Justice.

Larry Wallace, who served as director of the Law Enforcement Division under then-Attorney General Harris, was accused by his former executive assistant of “gender intimidation” and other demeaning behavior.

The lawsuit was filed in December 2016, when Harris was still attorney general but had been elected to the Senate. The lawsuit was settled in May 2017 by Xavier Becerra, who was appointed to replace her as attorney general.

Harris said she was never told about the lawsuit. Wallace resigned from Harris’ Senate post after the Sacramento Bee published the story.

When all these revelations came to light in 2019, Harris, as a senator, positioned herself as a champion of women.

It’s a position she maintains to this day. She has also touted her previous work as a prosecutor in her campaign speeches, noting that it prepared her for her fight against Trump.

“As many of you know, before I was elected vice president, before I was elected United States senator, I was elected attorney general, and before that I was elected district attorney. And before that I was a prosecutor,” she said at her rally in Detroit on Wednesday.

‘In those roles, I took on all kinds of perpetrators: predators who abused women, fraudsters who defrauded consumers, con artists who broke the rules for personal gain.

“So, listen to me Detroit when I say, I know the Donald Trump type. I’ve been dealing with them my whole career,” she noted.

The crowd usually goes wild when Harris drops this line.

Even before she became the Democratic presidential nominee, the Biden campaign had tasked Harris with winning over Republican women who might disagree with Trump’s policies and alleged past behavior.

A New York jury found Trump guilty of sexually assaulting columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. Another New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records regarding a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Daniels said she had an affair with Trump, which he denied.

Harris made a national name for herself in the Senate when she objected to then-President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, based in part on allegations of sexual misconduct.

Her sharp, pointed questions to Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing went viral, airing on national news and talk shows.

They even caught Trump’s attention, who criticized Harris as a “terrible” and “mean” woman.

Additionally, the #MeToo movement was an issue in the 2020 Democratic race when Harris was running for the nomination that Joe Biden would eventually win. She would later become his running mate.

Biden was accused by several women in 2019 of touching them in ways that made them uncomfortable.

Harris said she believed those women.

Biden apologized for his actions and pledged to act more deliberately in the future.

Biden acknowledged changing social norms at the time and promised to be “more respectful of people’s personal space.” But he also defended his actions, saying he wanted to comfort people.

“I will be much more mindful. That is my responsibility, my responsibility, and I will honor it. But I will always believe that government, frankly, and life, is about connecting, connecting with people. That will not change,” Biden said in a video statement.