Michelle McGinnis is the former head of the L.A. City Attorney’s criminal branch in Los Angeles. She was appointed for the position in 2023 by then-incoming L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto but first began working with the city attorney’s office more than thirty years earlier, starting as a Paralegal. In 2025, however, she was abruptly terminated from her duties by Feldstein Soto for what McGinnis’ lawsuit describes as “personal and political gains.”
This isn’t just your average wrongful termination claim, though. McGinnis’ lawsuit contends that Feldstein Soto possibly broke the law by holding at least one personal meeting as soon as she got into office with disgraced Council Member Kevin De León, who at the time was the defendant in a case brought against him by activist Jason Reedy over a scuffle the two engaged in at the end of 2022 (among other things).
The potential oversight was not an isolated incident, however, as the following year Feldstein Soto directed McGinnis to pursue charges against Ricci Sergienko, a protestor who was within his right to protest the home of an Israeli lobbyist at the outset of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in late 2023.
Last but certainly not least, the lawsuit further alleges that Feldstein Soto consumes alcohol on the job, calls staff outside of work hours as early as 4:00 AM, and even demands City Attorney prosecutors to avoid criminal cases against corporate defendants who can be potential donors for her wider political ambitions. Read the full docket for yourself below, and remember that Feldstein Soto is up for reelection, or ouster, as soon as this June 2nd, 2026.
J.T.
