Puerto Rican Mayor Critical of Trump Reportedly Facing FBI Corruption Probe
The Puerto Rican politician who last fall attacked President Donald Trump over the federal response to Hurricane Maria is now at the center of another storm due to allegations of corruption surrounding her administration.
Last fall, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz rose to fame by attacking Trump, who responded in kind via Twitter.
…Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
Now, according to Fox News, the newspaper El Vocero de Puerto Rico, a Spanish-language publication on the island, has reported the mayor’s administration is under investigation by the FBI.
The newspaper reported that former procurement director Yadira Molina kicked off the FBI investigation into corruption in San Juan’s government when she filed a lawsuit alleging that she was punished for reporting illegal activities, according to Fox.
“On February 21, Molina sued the city council after reporting alleged acts of corruption in the shopping division in the town hall under the administration of Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Soto,” the newspaper reported.
Molina said that under what she called a rigged system, one supply company was given “preferred supplier” status and paid three times what anyone else got for the same products.
Molina claimed San Juan officials then sent business to that supplier.
“It was the municipality’s policy, pattern, and practice to engage in the corrupt allocation of purchases described herein and to retaliate against anyone who exercised her First Amendment rights by informing persons of authority in the municipality that she intended to report that illegal conduct,” the lawsuit claimed, according to a copy posted by The Epoch Times.
The lawsuit also claimed that Molina was threatened with violence.
“One particularly disturbing aspect of the threatening calls was that when Ms. Molina went to another municipal employee’s office to meet, she would be told that there was a call for her. When she took the call, it was a voice threatening to kill her. In this way, municipal employees let Ms. Molina know that her every move was being watched by them,” the lawsuit said.
Cruz made waves last fall by attacking Trump, but to some on the island, the show has gotten old.
“She comes out, goes on television and pats herself on the back,” said Simon Menendez, a small business owner, told Fox News. “It stopped being about us a long time ago.”
People were saying this back then, and the MSM was too busy using her to bash Trump to report on it. Carmen Yulin Cruz is not the saint she was made out to be. #CORRUPTION #glasshouses #Hypocrite https://t.co/kCsJav9tGd
— Mick (@aarcizzle2300) June 19, 2018
Cruz did not respond to Fox News when it sought comment. The FBI would neither confirm nor deny that it was investigating Cruz, according to Fox.
Allegations of corruption are nothing new on the island. In October, the FBI was investigating allegations that supplies were being divvied up according to political connections, not actual needs.
“The complaints we’re hearing is that mayors of local municipalities, or people associated with their offices, are giving their political supporters special treatment, goods they’re not giving to other people who need them,” FBI Special Agent Carlos Osorio said at the time, according to Fox News.
“The U.S. attorney has made it clear if anyone is caught mishandling FEMA supplies, they will be prosecuted and could end up facing anywhere from five to 20 years in prison,” Osorio said.
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