An ongoing federal investigation into a massive straw donor scheme has landed the father of Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA) – a major Hillary Clinton ally – over a year’s worth of jail time.
The congressman’s father, Babalul Bera, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for organizing a money-laundering scheme that helped fund his son’s campaigns.
The scheme allowed over $265,000 to be funnelled into Bera’s congressional campaign coffers.
Via KCRA:
U.S. Rep. Ami Bera’s father was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in prison and three years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to soliciting illegal contributions for his son’s campaign.
In addition to serving time in a federal prison, Babulal “Bob” Bera, 83, was also fined $100,000.
The Bera family and supporters appeared to be stunned as the judge read the sentence in a federal court.
“This is one of the most difficult experiences of Congressman Bera’s and his entire family’s lives,” Bera’s campaign manager Jerid Kurtz said. “Babulal Bera made a grave mistake and he now has to face the consequences of that.”
Bera has been a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton, supporting her current presidential bid while husband Bill has endorsed and recorded robocalls for his campaign.
He recently appeared at Hillary’s DNC coronation, where he declared she “is the only candidate that understands the complexity of election fraud of the world and is prepared from day one to lead America.”
At Hillary’s Benghazi hearing, Bera awkwardly hoped he’d work with Clinton “in the future” when she was president.
But the Clinton devotee may have to worry about other things before he gets ahead of himself. While he claims to have no knowledge of his father’s scheme, “a retired FBI agent who worked on high-profile public corruption probes” said it “defies reasoning” that Bera wouldn’t have known something was amiss.
After Babalul Bera’s sentencing, the Justice Department made clear that “the U.S. Government takes these crimes seriously and will spare no effort to defend the integrity of the electoral process which is the foundation of American democracy.”
Will that defense lead to Hillary surrogate, Ami Bera, himself? Time will tell.
Comment: Surprised to see yet another Democrat headed to jail for election fraud? Tell us what you think below.
