Rubio is in for some hefty legal fees..
A recently unsealed plea agreement suggests that state Sen. Susan Rubio was part of a sprawling cannabis bribery scheme when she served on the Baldwin Park City Council in 2018. Rubio denies wrongdoing.
Rubio said she talked to federal authorities and was told she is not a target of their investigation into a plot in which officials allegedly took bribes for permits to operate marijuana businesses.
Documents made public by the U.S. attorney’s office last week allege that a public official who fits the profile of state Sen. Susan Rubio was part of sprawling cannabis bribery scheme when she served on the Baldwin Park City Council and campaigned for state office in 2018.
Rubio, a Democrat, said through a spokesman that she “has no reason to believe that she would be included in any criminal allegations.”
The documents do not name Rubio, but they describe a public official who fits her profile: someone who was in a position to terminate the Baldwin Park city attorney in 2017 and 2018, and was running for state office through November of 2018. Rubio is the only Baldwin Park official whose experience matches those criteria.
The information was revealed in a plea agreement in which former Baldwin Park City Atty. Robert Tafoya admitted his role in a cannabis bribery scheme and agreed to cooperate in ongoing public corruption investigations. Edgar Cisneros, the former city manager of Commerce, also pleaded guilty in the plot in which local officials allegedly took bribes to hand out permits for marijuana businesses.
According to his unsealed plea agreement, Tafoya alleges that an unnamed Baldwin Park official requested $30,000 in cash payments to later be funneled into their state campaign account through straw donors. The candidate allegedly wanted these small donations to “demonstrate to other donors his/her broad support in the community,” the plea says.
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