The NY Times reports on the full name of the human trafficker Perla Huerta, who conned asylum seekers in Texas into boarding a flight to Martha’s Vineyard.
If you accept the absurd premise promoted by the GQP, asylum seekers are not only illegal but also represent a terroristic threat to national security. then the trafficking of such people should also be some kind of crime by an accomplice like Ron DeSantis. GOP perps and their agents like Perla Huerta, Christina Bobb, and Evan Corcoran, have exposure because they’ve aiding and abetting illegal acts.
Similarly Trump remains a terroristic threat to national security because he remains unprosecuted for something that is an actual action against the US. Likely DeSantis will not get prosecuted for such obviously immoral and illegal acts. In the coming days we will definitely get a better picture of Perla Huerta on the road to sorting these things out.
SAN ANTONIO — In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a budget that set aside $12 million to create a program for transporting unauthorized migrants out of Florida. He touted it as the highlight of the state’s new spending when it came to immigration.
But just three months later, the money was being used in a place far from Florida, in a very different way: rounding up Venezuelan asylum seekers on the streets of San Antonio and shipping them on private planes to Massachusetts.
The flights last month, carrying 48 migrants, attracted international attention and drew condemnation from Democrats as well as several legal challenges. Mr. DeSantis immediately claimed credit for what appeared to be a political maneuver — dumping dozens of asylum seekers on the doorstep of Northeastern Democrats who have resisted calls to clamp down on immigration.
Florida officials have provided little information about the program or how it was engineered. But details have begun to emerge of the clandestine mission that was carried out without the knowledge of even the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican: flights paid for with state money in possible violation of the state law that allocated the money; a charter airline company with political ties to the Florida governor.
And, in the middle of it all, a woman with a background in military counterintelligence who investigators believe was sent to Texas from Tampa in order to fill the planes.
Until now, little has been known about the woman whom migrants said identified herself only by her first name, “Perla,” when she solicited them to join the flights. A person briefed on the San Antonio Sheriff’s office investigation into the matter told The New York Times that the person being looked at in connection with the operation is a woman named Perla Huerta.
Ms. Huerta, a former combat medic and counterintelligence agent, was discharged last month after two decades in the U.S. Army that included several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military records.
A Venezuelan migrant who was working with Ms. Huerta to recruit migrants confirmed her identity, and a migrant in San Antonio whom Ms. Huerta had unsuccessfully sought to sign up identified a photo of her in an interview with The Times. Several of the migrants on Martha’s Vineyard photographed her during the recruitment process in San Antonio, according to Rachel Self, a lawyer representing the migrants. Lawyers working with them were able to match those photos with others online and in social media belonging to a woman named Perla Huerta.
[...]
The man who said he worked with her to help sign up other migrants agreed to speak on the condition that his name not be used because the events are under investigation. He said he first met Ms. Huerta on Sept. 10 outside the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio.
She asked him to help her recruit other migrants like him from Venezuela. But he said he felt betrayed, because she never mentioned working on behalf of the Florida government. “I was also lied to,” he said. “If I had known, I would not have gotten involved.” All he was told, he said, was that “she wanted to help people head up north.”
The effort to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard appeared to have been far less organized than the more sweeping program created by Mr. Abbott in Texas that already had bused more than 11,000 migrants from the state to three northern, Democratic-run cities — Washington, New York and Chicago.
But the goal for both governors was the same: draw attention to the large number of unauthorized migrants arriving daily at the southern border and force Democrats to deal with the migrants whom they profess a desire to welcome.
In the case of the flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Florida state records show that an airline charter company, Vertol Systems, was paid $615,000 on Sept. 8 and $950,000 less than two weeks later. The first payment was for “project 1” and the second payment for “projects two and three.” So far, Florida officials have acknowledged only the initial flights and have not spoken of plans for others.
[...]
Vertol Systems, which was founded in the mid-1990s, offers aviation maintenance and training services, and does work for the U.S. government. Over the years, the company has increasingly networked with Republican power brokers in Florida.
In litigation, court records show, Vertol was once represented by Matt Gaetz, now a Republican member of Congress and a close ally of Mr. DeSantis. Another lawyer whom the company used for a series of lawsuits, according to information first reported by NBC News, was Larry Keefe. Mr. Keefe is now serving as Mr. Desantis’s public safety czar, leading efforts to confront immigration issues.
Vertol and its leader, James Montgomerie, have also donated to Republican legislators, including Mr. Gaetz and Representative Jay Trumbull, who led the Florida House Appropriations Committee this year as lawmakers earmarked the money for a program initially intended to relocate migrants from Florida.
www.nytimes.com/...
Have the trumpists rigged the 11th Circuit?
Next up: investigators are seeking information from Christina Bobb about singing the attestation that Corcoran drafted saying they handed over all the classified documents in June and HAVE NOT RULED OUT a criminal inquiry. 2/
Next, we learn that Corcoran drafted the attestation and Bobb AMENDED it to make it less ironclad. Why would she do that? 3/
Next, we learn that some trump associates and advisors have recommended Corcoran withdraw as counsel because of his legal exposure and lack of experience. 4/
Next: Herschmann said in an email that short of a court order granting executive privilege, he would have to testify. “I certainly am not relying on any legal analysis from you or Boris [Epshteyn] - who I think is an idiot.” 5/
Next: Herschmann invoked witness tampering language when Corcoran asked to call him up. “[Corcoran and Epshteyn] should not in any way be involved in trying to influence, delay, or prevent my testimony.” 6/
Finally, the DAY before his testimony, trump lawyers told Herschmann that trump’s lawyers had sought an executive privilege court order, and Herschmann’s testimony was delayed. 7/
Link to the full article. END
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