Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing back on claims that he unduly interfered with a discrimination case being brought against Activision Blizzard Inc. after an attorney at the state agency handling the lawsuit suggested Newsom was doing the bidding of the video game giant.
“Claims of interference by our office are categorically false,” said Erin Mellon, Newsom’s communications director.
Melanie Proctor resigned from her position as assistant chief counsel for the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Wednesday in protest of the governor’s recent firing of her boss, Chief Counsel Janette Wipper. In an email to colleagues, Proctor wrote that over the last few weeks Newsom’s office “began to interfere” with a suit the agency was bringing against Activision, pushing for early notice of the agency’s legal strategies and “mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.”
Proctor and Wipper stopped working on the Activision case earlier this month.
Mellon said that the governor’s administration “supports the effective work DFEH has done … and will continue to support DFEH in their efforts to fight all forms of discrimination.”
The DFEH suit accuses Activision, a Santa Monica-based company that recently agreed to be acquired by Microsoft in a $69-billion deal, of operating a workplace awash with sexual harassment, wage discrimination and misogynist management.
Alexis Ronickher, the lawyer who’s now representing both Proctor and Wipper, said in a statement that Wipper is...
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