GOP Rival Urges Gallegly to Allow Release of FBI Files

A Republican who is challenging Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) in the June primary has called on the incumbent lawmaker to allow release of the full record of Gallegly’s contacts with the FBI about an investigation of four Los Angeles agents in 1987 and 1988.

“If, as Mr. Gallegly continues to claim, he has nothing to hide, the congressman should immediately take this action,” GOP candidate Sang Korman said in a news release. “If he refuses to do so, then he should explain why.”

Korman’s campaign was reacting to disclosures contained in newly released investigative FBI files.

The documents show that Gallegly repeatedly complained to high-ranking FBI officials that four veteran agents had threatened him and conspired to defeat him in 1988 in violation of a law prohibiting federal employees from working to influence the outcome of an election.

At the time, and in interviews last week, Gallegly denied complaining about the agents’ actions. The agents, who live in Gallegly’s 21st District, were investigated by the bureau and cleared of any wrongdoing.

Gallegly could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He previously sought to dismiss the matter as politically motivated, characterizing it as “pole-vaulting over cow pies.”

Korman, a Calabasas real estate developer who is opposing Gallegly in the June 12 primary after winning only 13% of the vote in the 1988 GOP contest, was not available to discuss his statement. He left Tuesday for Japan to attend a relative’s wedding, said his campaign manager, Bob Lavoie.

In the release, Korman charged that Gallegly lied to FBI officials about a meeting that the lawmaker held with three FBI agents who sought his support in September, 1987, for a bill to raise overtime pay for federal law enforcement officials.

Gallegly told the FBI that the agents had been threatening and intimidating after he refused to support the measure, according to FBI records and interviews. Gallegly said the measure was too costly.

When the issue became public in May, 1988, Gallegly said he called the FBI to determine whether the agents represented the bureau; last week he said he called to request a forum to communicate his position on the pay-raise issue.

“He then lied to the media and the public about whether he had filed a complaint against the agents. And he continues to lie in an attempt to cover up his earlier lies,” Korman said in the release. “Mr. Gallegly is now involved in a never-ending spiral of lies that has cast serious doubt on his character and ethics.”

Lavoie said of the FBI agents: “What could they possibly have to threaten or intimidate him with unless they know something that the rest of us don’t know that Mr. Gallegly knows and wants to keep secret?”

The solidly Republican 21st District comprises southern Ventura County, parts of the western and northern San Fernando Valley and Santa Catalina Island.