Despite more than 48 public records requests for text messages she sent during contentious protests in June 2020, Mayor Jenny Durkan has repeatedly responded to all of them with “new phone, who dis?”
“Heey, I don’t know who this is, but I lost all my contacts after I changed phones in October 2019 and then again just a few months later in July 2020,” Durkan texted the City of Seattle’s public records department. “Even though I’m a former U.S. District Attorney and a mayor of a major American city, I’m sorry this is completely blindsiding me that anyone would have wanted these saved as public record. I wasn’t doing much at all at that time last year anyway. Yeah, just checked, mystery person: Can’t find any texts records from June 2020 anywhere. Oops, sorryyy.”
City Attorney Pete Holmes said Mayor Durkan is not alone in struggling to find any phone text messages sent during the several days the Seattle Police Department on Capitol Hill shot tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, legal observers and journalists.
“It’s so weird: We’re having the same problem finding texts during the same time period from former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, current Seattle Fire Department Chief Harold Scoggins and several members of SPD’s command staff,” said Holmes. “It’s so unfortunate this is all going to make it harder for victims of police brutality to sue the city and way more difficult for investigative journalists trying to figure out what was really going with Seattle’s leadership last June. I’m sure this is all just an innocent accident.”
Durkan reportedly attempted to text back the two whistleblowers from the City of Seattle’s public records department who have initiated an ethics investigation of the Mayor’s Office withholding of the text messages, but both employees are reportedly now leaving her on read.
