Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors member Sheila Kuehl was tipped off about an impending police raid on her home, according to text messages in a court filing, confirming earlier complaints by L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
The text messages, first obtained and reported by Steven Gregory of local radio station KFI AM 640, suggest that Kuehl, a prominent local Democrat, might have had opportunities to cancel or destroy evidence in an ongoing corruption investigation.
These are the text messages extracted from Sheila Kuehl's phone showing the heads up she got the night before the search warrant for her home. @KFIAM640 @billhandelshow @GaryandShannon @johnandkenshow @ConwayShow pic.twitter.com/CWKkVDfROW
— stevengregory (@stevengregory) September 23, 2022
As Breitbart News reported last week:
Kuehl is reportedly being investigated over allegations of a “pay-to-play” contract for a sexual harassment hotline on the L.A. Metro public transportation system. The contract was awarded to a Kuehl donor, Patti Giggans, under a no-bid process.
…
The Times noted that a barefoot Kuehl’s phone was seized, as she complained about the search and alleged that she was the victim of political bias inside the Sheriff’s office.
County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has repeatedly clashed with the Board of Supervisors, opposing its efforts to “defund the police” and accusing it of failing to address the crisis of homelessness on the country’s streets. He also resisted efforts by the county to impose vaccine mandates on the police force. An angry Board of Supervisors has proposed a ballot initiative this November that would allow them to dismiss the elected sheriff at will. Villanueva faces a tough reelection fight this fall.
After Villanueva complained to California Attorney General Rob Bonta about Kuehl allegedly being tipped off, Bonta did not investigate Kuehl, but rather removed the investigation from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and took control of it at the state level. As Breitabrt News reported:
In theory, the unit within the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department that investigates corruption is independent from Villanueva. But Democrats — ironically, echoing Donald Trump’s claims about the Department of Justice — claim there is political bias.
Villanueva wrote to Bonta last week, complaining that Kuehl and her associate, Patti Giggans, appeared to have been tipped off in advance of the raid, potentially allowing them to hide or destroy evidence, and to raise allegations of political motives.
Bonta replied by taking over the investigation.
…
In a further irony, Kuehl’s lawyers are asking a local judge to appoint a special master to go through potentially privileged materials seized by police — just like [former President Donald] Trump [in the Mar-a-Lago case].
Kuehl was enthusiastic about coronavirus restrictions, calling those who complained about masks “snowflake weepies.” She infamously dined at an outdoor restaurant after voting to ban outdoor dining in the county.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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