Kristin Crowley, the former LAFD chief, filed a lawsuit personally against Mayor Karen Bass, arguing that campaign statements blamed her for the Palisades fire response—statements Crowley says were false and not protected by government immunity.
When Kristin Crowley learned she was being removed as Los Angeles Fire Department chief, she says it wasn’t just a personnel decision. It was, in her words, retaliation wrapped in politics.
Now the former LAFD chief is taking that fight to court again—this time suing Mayor Karen Bass personally for defamation. Crowley filed the new lawsuit on Tuesday. arguing that while Bass was campaigning for reelection. she made damaging claims about Crowley’s role in the catastrophic Palisades fire response.
The legal fight traces back to Bass’s decision to attend a ceremony in Ghana on Jan. 7 as the deadly Palisades fire spread in extreme red-flag conditions. Crowley’s original case. filed in February. alleged that Bass “orchestrated a campaign of retaliation” and removed Crowley as fire chief to shift blame amid mounting criticism. Crowley also alleges that Bass’s public narrative blamed her for response failures—despite what Crowley says were warnings and constraints tied to the department’s readiness.
In Tuesday’s lawsuit, Crowley asks for unspecified economic and compensatory damages. She argues Bass’s comments on the campaign trail are not protected by government immunity and should be paid for out of Bass’s own pocket.
Crowley’s suit says Bass spread misinformation to protect her own reputation on the campaign trail. “knowing that her statements about the Palisades Fire. about the LAFD’s resources and deployment decisions. and about Crowley. were false.” The complaint contends Bass “sought to avoid accountability by shifting blame and lying. ” including by falsely claiming she was not aware of the nationally anticipated weather event.
The allegations also point to a televised debate on May 6. Crowley says Bass blamed her for inoperable fire engines. arguing that those engines had not been repaired because of insufficient funding for mechanics. Crowley’s complaint says Bass “falsely blamed Crowley. ” while also claiming Crowley had publicly and privately opposed Bass’s budget cut that left fire engines inoperable.
Crowley’s lawyers say Bass went further on the trail. telling viewers that Crowley had sent home 1. 000 firefighters who would have been in the area of the fire—an assertion the lawsuit calls false. The filing says Bass “maliciously and intentionally exploited the ease with which misinformation spreads.”.
In the picture Crowley paints, the harm is not abstract. She says Bass chose personal interest over transparency and the truth. and over the interests and safety of the people of Los Angeles and the thousands of firefighters who risk their lives. Crowley is described in the suit as a career firefighter with the LAFD for over 26 years.
Bass fired Crowley on Feb. 21, 2025—six weeks after the fire. Crowley says that while Bass initially praised her early in the firefighting effort. she later learned Bass had decided to remove her because Crowley believed additional firefighters could have been deployed on the day the blaze ignited. She also says Crowley rebuffed a request to prepare a report on the fires that she described as a critical part of investigations into what happened and why.
The Palisades fire began the morning of Jan. 7, 2025, driven by fierce Santa Ana winds. It killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes, with damage estimated in the billions of dollars. The lawsuit and broader controversy swirl around who knew what and when, and whether decisions before, during, and after Jan. 7 left the city exposed.
The firefighting response and accountability questions have been intensifying as the case moves through the public record. Authorities have alleged that a Florida man currently on trial started the fire. and that it was a rekindling of a Jan. 1 blaze. Even so, decisions by LAFD leadership and the mayor have faced scrutiny.
Crowley’s lawyers say the department’s readiness was weakened by resource and staffing problems that had been raised before the fire. They argue Crowley repeatedly warned about an aging infrastructure, surging emergency calls, and shrinking staff—warnings they say were ignored. They say Crowley revealed to the public that “budget cuts had weakened the department’s readiness and jeopardized public and firefighter safety. ” and that Bass retaliated by ousting her.
The lawsuit describes a turning point just days after the fire. Crowley told a local TV news station three days after the fire that her department was “screaming to be properly funded.” The complaint says Bass then summoned Crowley to her office.
Before Crowley was dismissed, the complaint says, the narrative about budget cuts also met resistance from within city budgeting discussions. The lawsuit points to the city’s top financial analyst pushing back on Crowley’s account that budget cutting drove readiness problems—saying that spending on the Fire Department actually increased during that budget year. That increase. the filing says. largely came from a package of firefighter raises that added an estimated $53 million to the department’s budget.
Separately, records obtained by The Times described internal efforts tied to messaging after the Palisades fire. Shortly before an after-action report was released. the Los Angeles Fire Department issued a confidential memo on LAFD letterhead outlining plans to protect Bass and others from “reputational harm.” The 13-page document reportedly listed email addresses for department officials. representatives of Bass’s office. and public relations consultants hired to shape messaging.
As criticism grew over inadequate deployment of firefighters. a chaotic evacuation of Pacific Palisades. and a lack of water—linked in part to a local reservoir left empty for repairs—The Times reported that the city’s after-action report had been altered to deflect criticism of LAFD’s failure to predeploy engines and crews to the Palisades. among other shortcomings.
For Crowley. the thrust of the newest filing is clear: she is not only disputing decisions and outcomes. but disputing the campaign-era story attached to her name. In asking the court to decide whether Bass’s remarks can be shielded by government immunity—and in demanding that any damages be paid out of Bass’s personal funds—Crowley is trying to force an answer to a question that has lingered since Jan. 7: when the public needed clarity most, who chose blame over accuracy, and at what cost to people on the ground.
Kristin Crowley Karen Bass LAFD Palisades fire defamation lawsuit government immunity campaign remarks Los Angeles Mayor