The Los Angeles Fire Department chief, who was removed in February over the department’s response to the raging wildfires, accused LA Mayor Karen Bass of waging a “misinformation” campaign against her.

In a tort claim filed Wednesday, Kristin Crowley alleged that Bass “orchestrated a campaign of misinformation, defamation, and retaliation” to shift blame over city leadership’s inadequate response to the natural disaster earlier this year.

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LA exhibited a lack of preparedness for the January wildfires, with a chaotic evacuation of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and a lack of water partly caused by empty reservoirs. Even more alarming was the LAFD’s decision to withhold an emergency deployment of roughly 1,000 available firefighters prior to the fire’s outbreak.

Bass fired Crowley on Feb. 21, saying the ousted chief sent firefighters home instead of using them to extinguish the wildfires. Crowley alleged that Bass’s statement was a lie.

Crowley’s lawyer said, “She sought to shift blame to Crowley, falsely stating that Bass was not aware of the nationally anticipated weather event, that Crowley sent 1,000 firefighters home who could have fought the blaze, and misrepresenting the department’s budget.”

According to Crowley, Bass made $18 million in budget cuts to the LAFD in the weeks before the devastating wildfires and “eliminated positions critical to maintaining fire engines, trucks, and ambulances.”

The budget cuts came after Crowley “repeatedly warned of the LAFD’s worsening resource and staffing crisis” and warned that “aging infrastructure, surging emergency calls, and shrinking staff left the city at risk,” the legal claim says. The filing typically precedes a civil lawsuit.

Bass also faced intense scrutiny for leaving LA to attend an event in Ghana on Jan. 7, when the initial wildfires ignited. She reportedly kept her trip scheduled despite knowing that the possibly life-threatening winds at the time could precipitate deadly wildfires in the city.

The legal claim says Bass started to blame Crowley “as criticism mounted over her absence,” even though she “initially praised the department’s preparedness.”

According to Bass, Crowley allegedly refused to conduct an after-action report on the wildfires. However, Crowley’s lawyers argued she was never instructed to conduct the report and maintained it was the mayor who refused to order one.

On Tuesday, Bass said she delayed the release of the after-action report to let the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives finish its investigation into the cause of the wildfires. The request was made by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California to city leaders.

More than seven months after the wildfires started, there is no set date for the report’s release.

“The claim sets out a pattern of dishonesty, scapegoating, and unlawful retaliation that destroyed the career of a 25-year public servant not because of any failure in her duties, but because she told the truth,” Crowley’s legal team said in a statement.

“The tort claim makes clear that Fire Chief Crowley did her job. She told City leadership and the public that Mayor Bass’ budget cuts and the City’s decades of neglect had left the LAFD underfunded, understaffed, and ill-equipped to handle the rising demands of a growing city, especially one at risk of dangerous wildfires. Instead of addressing those concerns, Mayor Bass retaliated,” her team continued.

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The mayor’s office did not respond to the filing of the legal claim.

Crowley’s lawyers specifically alleged that Bass and her administration engaged in defamation and violated the California Labor Code, as well as their client’s First Amendment rights. In the tort claim, Crowley is seeking more than $25,000 in unspecified damages.