"Agha and Grupo Flor founder Mike Bitar were once the closest of friends, so close Bitar was able to convince many that he was Agha’s nephew, so close that Agha made him the executor of his estate. Now they grit their teeth when they talk about each other" voicesofmontereybay.org/2019/11/07/cul…
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"For instance, Agha’s legal team used ledgers to show that the Grupo Flor folks had paid just shy of $100,000 to their local government lobbyists during the time that Agha and Grupo Flor were partners."
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"The lobbying firm is a partnership between Carmel Mayor Dave Potter, who previously served on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors for 20 years, and veteran Monterey County campaign manager Plasha Fielding Will."
* Plasha Will is Jimmy Panetta's campaign consultant who
purchased a 17 acre Carmel Valley house, horse property for a million dollars from Panetta donor Nancy Burnett, heir to the Hewlett-Packard fortune and sister to Julie Packard, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Cannery Row.
Plasha Will had dumped a house to foreclosure in 2012
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but banking wasn't a problem for credit impaired Will. The Hewlett-Packard heiress carried the entire million dollar loan, personally.
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Plasha Will would not need a bank - like everyone else.
What does it say when @RepJimmyPanetta will do a promo photo shoot with Mike Bitar, his brother, and Gavin Kogan (a weed lawyer who admitted under oath he lied in the Grupo Flor county application process)?
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"Eisenhart established, however, that the backdating and other fudging was significant because the actual date of leases and the start of operations were keys to obtaining the county exemption.
“It wasn’t my finest hour,” said Kogan, a lawyer who specialized in"
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"representing Silicon Valley tech companies before concentrating on cannabis."
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Plasha Will is not only PAID by Mike Bitar, she is a MoCo fixer who has gone largely unscrutinized by paid media in Monterey County.
"Over the decades, Will has worked primarily as a campaign manager and lobbyist."
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Will (On Mike Bitar's payroll, worked right wing supervisor John Phillips campaign x2)
"She ran several of Potter’s campaigns and also ran both of Monterey County Supervisor John Phillips’ campaigns."
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And a Salinas Mayor so scandalous he put his house solely in his wife's name while Mayor, because he was being sued for corruption.
"She was also active in former Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue’s unsuccessful run for a supervisorial seat."
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... This is the man Jimmy Panetta is standing with. A guy once charged and convicted by the local DA (where Panetta worked 🤔) for fraud while running a Weinerschnitzel.
** GrupoFlor demands sub tenants of their marijuana leases to use Plasha Will as their marijuana consultant.
Because he was raised by a very powerful family, in a very insular community, with very little media attention from larger markets - like San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles.
Who is Mike Bitar and what is his history in Monterey County politics?
Why is every sub-lease Bitar creates for his primary lease of Nader Agha's Moss Landing Marijuana Grow Facility requiring that tenants use your political consultant Plasha Will?
Is anyone on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors concerned that a cocaine trafficker has made a credible claim he was facilitating bribes to one (Alejo) or more (Phillips) supervisors and one of those supervisors (Phillips) has a long history of interfering
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with law enforcement investigations (Brass Rail, Cannery Row, First Cabin Ltd.) while maintaining they all know nothing about the @FBI coming to Salinas to interview at least two (more) people (@ksbw@AmyLarson25)
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who have knowledge about the Monterey County cannabis bribery racket here locally and across state lines?
The man on the left is David Armanasco. He has been doing free public relations for @MCoSheriff Steve Bernal. 🤔
He is best buds with Leon Panetta.
The @mcweekly met with Armanasco as Steve Bernal was poised to enter office (from deputy to sheriff) and agreed to go easy.
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And they have. six years later the sherif stories have a soft touch. They round off the edges
The rigging of American politics is happening in plain sight. We need to pay attention or we will be right back at another Trump.
Armanasco is in the above photo with the sommelier
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from the Sardine Factory. One of his "paying clients".
So is Steve Bernal's public relations really free? @CA_FPPC.
No. It isn't. Steve Bernal's PR is paid for by the same well connected and questionable business men that steered a deputy into the corrupt sheriff slot.
"The debate comes as the credibility of the Justice Department and the FBI continues to crumble under decided failures in security and intelligence before the deadly siege on the nation’s citadel of democracy." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wapo-doj-…
What if the shoe was on the other foot?
Question: If the violent mob that attacked & took control of the Capitol on January 6th to interfere with congress' constitutional duty of counting & certifying the electoral votes from November's election
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were non-white & protesting against Trump, would they be charged, tried, convicted & sentenced to long prison terms for their crimes?
John FICKAS is a political consultant who just plead out to rape (multiple counts). Fickas' case was initially buried (while @Kelly_McMillin was chief of @SalinasPD) and only came to light a little over two years ago.
And then the @FBI came to #Salinas to interview connected
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people about campaign finance money laundering (A VERY BIG DEAL) after decades of abuse, behind the scenes deal making and bribery.
Fickas was funded, in part, by Mike Hackett - a Salinas based pizza maker and cocaine trafficker who is a major player in the local marijuana
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a multi-billion dollar market in Monterey County's #Salinas Valley.
Mike Hackett isn't supposed to be in the weed business because he is now a convicted felon but MoCo never ceases to amaze in its lawlessness and corruption.
It take a long time to get to the crisis point the US finds herself in today and at every local level you will find elected officials that led to this point - and make no mistake - it's a very dangerous time.