FBI agents removed boxes from the City Hall offices of Councilmember José Huízar at about the same time his Boyle Heights home was raided early Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The paper said that about 15 people wearing FBI jackets entered the Councilman’s fourth floor downtown office around 9 a.m. and removed the boxes “before a crowd of stunned City Hall staffers.”
A message on Twitter by City News reporter Craig Clough shows agents carrying boxes to an elevator:
Awkward moment as FBI agents wait for the elevator holding evidence from @josehuizar’s office while reporters watch, but it is @reporterclaudia to the rescue. “Somebody push the button for that guy.” pic.twitter.com/3erzjekYVi
— Craig Clough (@ReporterCraig) November 7, 2018
Witnesses told The Times that agents and at least one dog entered Huízar’s home in Boyle Heights at around the same time.
An agent supervising the City Hall raid told The Times that he could not say what the FBI was looking for because the search warrant was under seal.
A lawyer representing Huízar told the paper he was “trying to assess the situation” and had no further comment.
Huízar, whose 14th district includes Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Eagle Rock, is pushing to get his wife Richelle Huízar elected to the Council seat when he is termed out in 2020. Two former staffers recently filed lawsuits against Huízar, claiming he was involved in an extramarital affair with an aide and engaged in potentially unethical activities. One of the lawsuits claimed that Huízar instructed staff to raise money on city time for Salesian High School, his Boyle Heights alma mater.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said in a statement it had no record of Huízar staffers participating in school fundraisers.
