LOS ANGELES (KNX) — After KNX News debate moderator Seth Lemon pressed Rep. Karen Bass last week on whether she completed a formal application to attend USC on a scholarship, the congresswoman promised to release her paperwork before the election.
“To be clear, you formally applied — completed an application?” Lemon asked. “I applied for the program,” Bass responded.
Appearing to make good this week, she provided KNX with an unsigned and undated application for "limited" attendance.
The form Bass provided is an application to attend USC courses with "limited status" — not an application for admission. The document further reveals that although former USC dean Marilyn Flynn granted Bass a full scholarship in 2011, she had not yet been accepted to the scoail work program.
KNX reporter Craig Fiegener asked her to clarify the confusion Friday.
"Congresswoman, can you talk with us about the USC application," Fiegener asked as the unrelated press conference ended.
Rep. Bass walked away "quickly," Fiegener reported, without responding.
While Bass is not targeted in any criminal investigation, investigators have said her time at USC’s social work program and the $95,000 scholarship she received are critical to their case. Bass emphatically denied any quid pro quo with the now-indicted dean of the School of Social Work, despite emails that show the school official hoped to gain good favor with the congresswoman.
“Voters deserve this information now, not in a few weeks when the election is over,” her opponent Rick Caruso said in a statement.
Billionaire developer Caruso has been critical of Bass’s ties to USC, but questions surround promises he failed to meet as head of USC’s Board of Trustees. Caruso promised to publicly release reports tied to a sexual assault scandal. The businessman told KNX that “releasing any information” would have caused the victims “more horrific pain."
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