A political mailer that arrived on the doorsteps of residents near Baldwin Hills last month is stirring controversy in the Los Angeles City Council District 10 race and prompting action from Congress this week.

city ​​council approved the motion A crackdown on fraudulent campaign materials and “deepfakes” came Wednesday after a Baldwin Hills mailer that appeared to be sent by City Council candidate and current City Council member Heather Hutt drew attention. did. Hutt filed the motion in early February, days after the mailer was distributed.

The colorful mailer included a photo of Hutt and Mayor Karen Bass smiling together and a list of supporters. It included a printed list of official city resources and a logo identifying Hutt as a city council member.

This may violate rules The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission prohibits city employees from using their city titles or positions to support candidates, including themselves. Hutt's critics say he broke this rule by allegedly posting campaign materials alongside the city council's logo.

But Hutt's campaign consultant, Mike Shimpock, said the campaign was not responsible for the mailing and had no knowledge of it. He said someone had downloaded a campaign flyer from the Ethics Commission's website. It has been publishedWe created them, printed them out ourselves, and distributed them along with a list of resources.

Mr Simpok said the person who distributed the material was trying to make it appear that Mr Hutt had violated regulations.

“That's ridiculous. Someone with an ax smashed it into pieces,” Shimpock said. “We have never printed or produced this. ”

Former city commissioner Grace Yu, who is running against Mr. Hutt, said she believes Mr. Hutt filed the motion to cover up the ethics violations.

“This is terrible,” Yu said. “In fact, she violated ethics. They fell for their lies and covered their tracks.”

Devin Bakewell, communications director for the Hutt City Council Office, said the motion was filed “in response to the reality that technology is far exceeding our ethical rules, not just locally but nationally.” Stated.

“Whether it's the dirty tricks on congressmen's campaigns, the fake Biden robocalls in New Hampshire, or Purdue University's need to create a database of political deepfake incidents, we must stop this activity now. “No,” she said in an email.

City Council President Paul Krekorian and City Councilor Tracy Park seconded the motion. A spokesperson for Mr. Krekorian said he was unaware of the mailing's existence when he chose to support the motion.

District 10 resident Diane Lawrence wrote: critical article Regarding the CityWatch news website's mailer, it disputed Simpok's claim that the flyer was downloaded from the Ethics Commission website.

The graphics are Posted on website But Lawrence said residents only received the materials in late January before outsiders could access and download them. image.

Lawrence sent the Times a cellphone photo of the document on the doorstep, which was time-stamped on Jan. 28. Mr Simpok said the photo was “obviously” fake.

Simpok also said the mail could not have come from the Hutt camp because there were no small markings on the mail indicating it was printed by workers representing the union. All official emails from Hutt's campaign include this symbol.

“This whole thing is obviously fake,” he said. “We've run a completely clean campaign and been honest about all of this and only talked about Heather.”