Kipp Mueller is running state Senate in the sprawling 23rd Senate District. The district spans from Santa Clarita on the west to Victorville and Hesperia on the east and goes north beyond Lancaster. The race is sure to be competitive, with Mueller and former Assemblymember Suzette Valladares both having run close contests in the area before.
Mueller came up just short against incumbent Sen. Scott Wilk a few years ago. Back then, his campaign site touted his law enforcement credentials: “Kipp is the only person in this race who has actually worked with law enforcement, prosecuted violent criminals, and sent them to prison. Kipp has prosecuted sexual predators and fraudsters who targeted children, seniors, and veterans. He has removed violent and dangerous people from our communities, appearing in court on behalf of the People of the State of California. “
His campaign site at the time noted he “served in President Obama’s Department of Justice in the Consumer Protection Branch, and joined the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office to protect the community from sexual predators and fraudsters.”
Four years later, he touted this same experience in an endorsement survey he filled out to this very newspaper.
He wrote the following references to his experience as a prosecutor:
“My background as a criminal prosecutor, combined with my deep commitment to public service, makes me uniquely qualified for this office.”
“As a former prosecutor and the only candidate in this race who has a law enforcement background, I understand what it takes to ensure that communities feel safe and that serious crimes are addressed effectively.”
“As a former criminal prosecutor, I’m the only candidate in this race with law enforcement experience, and I understand firsthand what it takes to keep our community safe.”
This certainly sounds very legitimate and seems to underscore his clearly established track record as a prosecutor.
Except it now seems like Kipp Mueller is at best exaggerating his experience as a prosecutor and at worst misleading the public he wants to represent in Sacramento.
Two weeks ago, journalist Jennifer Van Laar reported that Mueller “was never employed by the U.S. Department of Justice or the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office, and we’ve found no evidence that he prosecuted fraudsters and sexual abusers.”
Van Laar walked through various instances of Mueller claiming to have prosecuted major cases, only to find no substantiation for these claims. Van Laar notes that his biography on the website of his current employer states he was a part of the “Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, Consumer Fraud unit.”
We asked the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office for information about Mueller’s time at the office and were told, “Michael Kipp Mueller worked here as a volunteer post-bar law clerk from August 8, 2014 through December 5, 2014. His assignment was listed as Real Estate Fraud/Sex.”
So there’s some truth at least to his employer bio, that he was at the Santa Clara County DA’s office and that he did some things related to fraud. But that’s where the truth ends and becomes “truthy.” Who would’ve thought that when Mueller described himself as a prosecutor he meant he was a “volunteer post-bar law clerk” for a few months?
The same is basically true of his experience at the DOJ, where he was an “extern” rather than someone who “served in President Obama’s Department of Justice in the Consumer Protection Branch” as a prosecutor in the sense that anyone who read that description would’ve thought.
These revelations prompted the Santa Clarita Valley Signal to remove pieces written by Mueller “due to false and/or exaggerated claims about the writer’s past employment experience.”
“[By] the legal definition of ‘prosecutor’ — which, considering that we are talking about the law, is the definition we should use — he has never been a prosecutor,” declared The Signal’s editorial board. “At all. Ever. When confronted with his extremely puffed-up resume, Mueller and his campaign doubled down, arguing that he WAS a prosecutor, when he clearly was not.”
This editorial board has had a similar experience with Kipp Mueller, having interviewed him just last week for a potential endorsement of his campaign. Mueller was careful in how he worded his experience, saying he “helped” prosecute cases before trying to stretch his limited experience as a clerk and extern into making him sound like someone who can say they were an actual prosecutor.
Indeed, if one looks at his campaign website, you’ll notice that it declares he “Helped Prosecute Criminals.”
A little further down on the main page, his campaign site reads: “Having helped prosecute criminals and the only candidate running for State Senate with law enforcement experience, Kipp knows what it takes to keep our community safe.”
Having helped.
That’s a little different from having prosecuted.
In the “About” section, he stretches this helping a bit more: “Kipp helped prosecute criminals at a DA’s office and the DOJ, focused on sex crimes, fraud cases, and corporate abuse.”
His website is, indeed, full of helps and helping.
This includes on the “Issues” page where he touts, “Having spent time in a DA’s office and the DOJ helping to prosecute criminals, I am the only candidate in this race who has actually helped to put criminals behind bars.”
Ah, yes. Having spent time there doing more helping is basically the same as being a prosecutor, apparently.
That contrasts with how he worded that section earlier this year: “As a former prosecutor, I am the only candidate in this race who has actually held criminals accountable.”
No sign of helping. And at the time his campaign site said, “Integrity. Trust. Smart Governance.” Those, too are now gone, incidentally, replaced with his claim to have “Helped Prosecute Criminals.”
Following our interview, we have asked Kipp Mueller to explain how his once vast prosecutorial experience transformed into “helping” prosecutors as a clerk and extern, but haven’t yet received a response.
Obviously, Mueller thinks throwing in “helped” mitigates the fallout from these revelations. We’re not sure it does.
Kipp Mueller is certainly far from the first candidate for office to exaggerate their actual record. But it’s not a good look for someone asking the public to trust him to represent them. It casts real doubt about his judgment and his ability to be honest with the public.