"In Thick of Bribery Scheme, Mark Ridley-Thomas Gave This Richly Ironic Advice" by Daniel Guss
Convicted felon’s ‘18 gadfly rebuke is utterly fascinating in ‘23
@TheGussReport on Twitter — An amusing part of watching wonky and tedious government meetings is when agitating gadflies such as Zuma Dogg, Wayne Spindler and the late John Walsh make, or even sing, obnoxious public comments that often turn out prescient. And sometimes, the reactions they get from tightly wrapped politicians turn out remarkably ironic.
For example, there’s the nugget from 2018 that we’re going to revisit today, when then-LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was convicted last week on seven federal corruption counts, interrupted Spindler’s button-pushing for, what he described as, a “point of personal privilege.”
So let’s set the timeline.
According to a Department of Justice press release from last week, “…from May 2017 to August 2018, Ridley-Thomas engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Marilyn Louise Flynn, 84, of Los Feliz, formerly a tenured professor and the dean of USC’s School of Social Work.”
Now let’s go back to an LA County Board of Supervisors meeting on May 29, 2018, which is roughly two-thirds of the way into that criminal conspiracy.
Late in the nearly 4-hour meeting, it’s Spindler’s turn to speak.
During his allotted speaking time, the always over-the-top immigration attorney humorously alleged that then-LA City Councilmember Joe Buscaino was “ratting out Janice Hahn to the FBI.” Hahn had been Buscaino’s predecessor on City Council, with a stint in Congress before becoming a County Supervisor.
Spindler was referring to enormous sums of money that Buscaino, Hahn, and other LA politicians had received from very unlikely donors, like a Salvadorian repairman, who, according to the LA Times, had direct or indirect connections to Samuel Leung, a land developer who was trying to build the controversial Sea Breeze project. (In 2020, Leung admitted to a felony conspiracy count, but got a slap on the wrist for his scheme.)
Spindler pointedly, if un-seriously, alleged that Buscaino had ratted-out Hahn to the FBI because she received $203,500 from Leung and he only got $94,700.
That’s what gadflies do.
Along the way, Spindler referred to one of the supervisors as a “fat bitch.”
It was at this point that Ridley-Thomas jumped in with his low-and-slow delivery, to call out Spindler’s brand of protected free speech.
“Madam Chair, point of personal privilege. (Ridley-Thomas turns to Spindler) I think the record ought to reflect that…..it’s not acceptable for you to call anybody what you did: a fat bitch. I don’t know who you were talking about, but there’s no way under the sun, Wayne, that you’re going to say that without a response,” Ridley-Thomas said before delivering his rhyming, ironic advice.
“Now, you need to check yourself, before you wreck yourself! Madam Chair?”
How gobsmacking ironic is that?
In the throes of a criminal bribery conspiracy in 2018, Ridley-Thomas, who now faces much of the rest of his life in federal prison, tells the irritant Spindler, who kills time in government meetings between his clients’ immigration cases in nearby federal court, that he needs to check himself, before he wrecks himself.
If only Ridley-Thomas took his own advice.
If only all politicians did.
(The phrase is also a title and lyric from rapper Ice Cube, and is laden with racist language, which Ridley-Thomas pointed out Spindler frequently uses, adding to the irony.)
Even more ironic is that Hahn, the subject of Spindler’s FBI crack, and meeting Chair Sheila Kuehl, who allowed Ridley-Thomas to interrupt, both eventually testified at trial on Ridley-Thomas’s behalf. (And in 2022, even Kuehl had a search warrant executed on her home in a separate criminal investigation.)
Thick as thieves, they are.
If only they knew in 2018 how this exchange would look in 2023. You can watch it in this video clip and advance to the 3-hour, 21-minute mark.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and has been a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)