In the three months since the FBI raided the home and two offices of NELA City Councilmember José Huizar, no official explanation has been given for the raids and no related arrests or charges have been made.
But the issue continues to generate a lot of smoke.
The L.A. Times reported on Jan. 12 that a federal search warrant, filed in federal court last November and unearthed in January, sought evidence into potential crimes by Mr. Huizar and a dozen other people.
Among the others are: Ray Chan, a former deputy mayor and former head of the Department of Building and Safety under Mayor Garcetti; City Councilmember Curren Price; Deron Williams, a senior aide to City Council President Herb Wesson; and Joel Jacinto, a Garcetti-appointed public works commissioner who stepped down on Jan. 18, saying he did not want to be a distraction for the commission.
The potential crimes under investigation include bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering connected to big real estate deals in downtown Los Angeles.
The L.A. Times learned of the warrant in a tweet on Jan. 8 from Seamus Hughes, a counterterrorism expert at George Washington University. Mr. Hughes found the warrant in the federal court’s public, online records.
T.A. Hendrickson, a native of Eagle Rock, is the editor of the Boulevard Sentinel and a former member of the Editorial Board of the New York Times.
