Tipsheet

Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass Just Lost Big in Court Over the Palisades Fire

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  May 07, 2026 8:30 AM

California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass are trying, hard, to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the Pacific Palisades wildfire. They blamed everything from wind to climate change to President Trump but the reality is their incompetent leadership made the fire much worse than it had to be.

Now the California Court of Appeals has denied the writ petitions filed by the state and city, which appealed a trial court's denial of their demurrers to the master complaint of fire victims. This was the last hope for Newsom and Bass to avoid discovery in the massive lawsuit brought against them by residents of the Pacific Palisades. The suit alleges that government negligence in water supply, prior fire suppression, brush clearance, and infrastructure failures exacerbated the fire, which caused widespread damage.

The entire post reads, "The justices also denied the States' request for a stay of the case. The City and State have played all of their cards and lost. The case now moves forward full speed."

Hopefully, this means accountability from Newsom and Bass, and justice for the victims.

McClelland is a retired unit chief with CAL Fire, too. 

"We’re going to see the deleted Mayor Bass texts AND all city and state attempts to manipulate, conspire and manipulate information and data to avoid accountability," Padawer wrote. "I believe the only question (after we review all discovery) will become whether this fire was merely gross negligence or criminal negligence on behalf of our leadership. They tried EVERYTHING to avoid this moment."

"This could potentially lead to more carriers coming back to the market (not you, State Farm). This is essentially a win for not just the victims of the fires, but every household that carries homeowners insurance," the post reads.

The timing could not have been better, and Spencer Pratt destroyed Bass and Nithya Raman in the debate.