Seattle to pay $2.3M to whistleblowers over ex-mayor Durkan’s 2020 deleted texts

SEATTLE (AP) — The city of Seattle will pay $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by employees who helped reveal that thousands of then-Mayor Jenny Durkan’s text messages had been deleted in 2020. The Seattle Times reports the terms of the settlement with Stacy Irwin and Kimberly Ferreiro were finalized this week. After their whistleblower complaint, texts of other top officials were also discovered to be missing from that period, when police used tear gas against Black Lives Matter protest crowds and vacated a police precinct. The agreement says the settlement isn’t an admission of wrongdoing and prohibits the parties from talking publicly about the settlement amount.