FBI raids home and offices of L.A. City Councilman @JoseHuizar latimes.com/local/lanow/la…
By lunchtime Wednesday, federal investigators had served search warrants on Huizar’s City Hall suite, one of his field offices and his Spanish Colonial Revival residence in Boyle Heights, carrying boxes of materials from at least two of those locations.
The searches pose, at minimum, a serious political threat to Huizar, a City Hall veteran who is working to elect his wife, Richelle Huizar, to his Eastside council seat.
FBI Special Agent David Nanz, who supervised the search warrant at City Hall, declined to comment on what the agents were looking for, saying the warrants executed Wednesday were under seal.
The FBI investigation comes as Huizar is already under serious legal pressure. Over the last month, two former staffers have filed lawsuits alleging that he engaged in an extramarital affair with an aide and potentially illegal activities.
Mayra Alvarez, a former Huizar aide, said in her lawsuit the councilman instructed staffers to work on his wife’s planned council campaign on city time.
Pauline Medina, another former aide, alleged that she and other employees were instructed to perform inappropriate tasks, including raising money on city time for his alma mater, Salesian High School in Boyle Heights.
Alvarez also alleged in her lawsuit that Huizar had instructed her to alter appointment calendars from 2015 and 2016 that had been requested by The Times under the California Public Records Act, removing references to meetings with specific lobbyists and developers.
