Nury Martinez, the disgraced former president of the Los Angeles City Council, made racist remarks about Jewish people and Armenians during a meeting with other council members and a labor leader in 2021, according to new audio leaked Tuesday.
Martinez, a Democrat and the first Latina to become City Council president, resigned on Monday after a recording from last October surfaced of her making disparaging comments about another council member's adopted Black son, Oaxacans in Koreatown and other communities.
New audio reviewed by the Los Angeles Times includes Martinez saying the "judios cut their deal with South L.A." in reference to former state Assemblyman Richard Katz's work on the council district boundary maps.
Judios means Jews in Spanish.
"They are gonna screw everybody else," Martinez said in the recording.
Martinez also made comments about Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, who is of Armenian descent, and Council member Paul Krekorian, the first Armenian American to be elected to public office in Los Angeles.
"He also wants his guy elected," said Martinez, referring to Krekorian. "So he needs a district that Adrin Nazarian could win it. That's what they want. They want to assure, they want to be reassured that they have, not an Armenian district in the Valley, because that doesn't exist, but they want as many Armenians in that district as possible to be able to play.
"Now, I don’t think Adrin ... gets elected. If a white, a reputable white businesswoman was in that district ... [it] is still pretty white. But that's on them," she said. "I'm not — I'm not cutting that deal with anybody because I don't know. I don't know that he can win."
The California Department of Justice will investigate Los Angeles' redistricting process after the revelations.
"The leaked audio has cast doubt on a cornerstone of our political processes. We will endeavor to bring the truth to light to help restore confidence in the process for the people of our state," Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Wednesday. "As a father and a human being, I am deeply appalled by the remarks made by some of Los Angeles' highest-ranking officials. Their comments were unacceptable, offensive and deeply painful. There is no place for anti-Black, antisemitic, anti-indigenous and anti-LGBTQ, or any kind of discriminatory rhetoric in our state, especially in relation to the duties of a public official."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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