Puerto Rico Mayor Facing Charges Over $3M Federal Disaster Relief Fraud

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Just months after her appearance on CNN, blaming President Trump for mishandling the Puerto Rico hurricane disaster response, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz and her team are now facing fraud charges for embezzling over $3 million in federal funds.

During the relief effort, Puerto Rico's Democrat-allied politicians pointed the finger at the president, despite the US Government sending emergency workers, supplies and billions of dollars in funding to the territory.

At the same time, the liberal mainstream media happily pushed the “blame Trump” narrative.

Figures like Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz publically attacked Donald Trump for his so-called mishandling the disaster response, despite the president and FEMA’s actions being praised by emergency management experts.

Speaking on TV at the time, Yulín Cruz wore a T-shirt emblazed with “NASTY,” as a jab at President Trump, and declared:

"What is really nasty is that anyone would turn their back on the Puerto Rican people." 

Glued to CNN, liberals across the US cheered the San Juan mayor on and declared her a "national hero."

During a television conference in early October last year, she continued her attack on Trump, proclaiming:

“We are dying, and you (Trump) are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy.” 

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Western Journal reports: Fast forward to this week.

It turns out that sure enough, there was plenty of “inefficiency and bureaucracy” in Puerto Rico … but it looks like the island’s own liberal politicians were likely the ones behind it.

According to the Associated Press, a Puerto Rican mayor and two additional island officials have now been charged with corruption.

Western Journal reports: Although the alleged crimes go back before Hurricane Maria made landfall in the Caribbean, the arrests paint a dire picture of widespread corruption and misuse of government funds during the same general time frame as the disaster.

“The suspects are the mayor of the southwest town of Sabana Grande and the former directors of finance for the northern town of Toa Baja,” the AP reported.

“U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez told reporters that the former officials from Toa Baja are accused of using nearly $5 million worth of federal funds to pay the town’s public employees and municipal contractors,” the newswire continued.

“Not only is that illegal, it’s immoral,” Rodriguez added.

Puerto Rico officials are accused of taking millions of dollars that was granted by the United States for assistance programs and re-directing it wherever they saw fit, such as taking $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and using it to pay town employees.

At the center of the illegal scheme is Miguel Ortiz Vélez, who served as mayor. Ortiz Vélez belongs to the Popular Democratic Party, which is affiliated with the more well-known Democrat party in the mainland United States.

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Guess who else belongs to the same liberal PDP political group: Carmen Yulín Cruz, the person who was blaming Trump for hurricane deaths while her own party was defrauding taxpayers and laundering aid money.

Is anyone surprised?

There may be more arrests to follow, as well. Government officials said that more corruption is suspected, and additional Puerto Rican officials are under scrutiny.

“Rodriguez said the investigation into alleged corruption in Toa Baja is ongoing because officials believe other people are involved,” the AP confirmed.

The hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico was certainly a tragedy, and many lessons about disaster preparedness can be learned from that incident.

However, it’s abundantly clear that widespread corruption and incompetence in Puerto Rico was a major part of the chaos.

That corruption doesn’t point to Donald Trump…

It leads right to the same leftist Democrats who were trying to point fingers the entire time.