FBI arrests US city mayor Mobolade over hate crime hoax
Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade has reportedly been arrested by the FBI for allegedly orchestrating a racist attack on himself to gain an electoral advantage.
A report by The Daily Wire on Tuesday indicated that the FBI has referred Mr Mobolade for prosecution, accusing him of making false statements regarding a hate crime hoax designed to bolster his candidacy.
On November 12, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado announced that three of Mr Mobolade’s supporters had been charged with defacing one of his campaign signs by writing a racial slur on it and placing a burning cross nearby.
The charged individuals, identified as Derrick Bernard Jr., Ashley Blackcloud, and Deanna West, allegedly sent videos of the staged scene to media outlets to rally Black voter turnout for Mr Mobolade, an African immigrant from Nigeria.
These actions were reportedly aimed at increasing support for Mr Mobolade during the mayoral runoff election against Wayne Williams. Mobolade, a left-wing candidate, went on to narrowly defeat a white Republican contender in the conservative-leaning city.
According to The Daily Wire, FBI investigators uncovered communications showing that Mr Mobolade was in frequent contact with the lead suspect, Mr Bernard, before, during, and after the incident.
Mobolade was interviewed twice regarding his knowledge of the hoax, during which he vehemently denied any contact with Mr Bernard. However, FBI officials claim to have uncovered dozens of messages exchanged between the two, contradicting his statements.
As a result of these discrepancies, the FBI referred Mr Mobolade to the Department of Justice for charges related to making false statements to federal investigators.
Mr Bernard, described as a career criminal, was previously sentenced to 32 months in prison in 2018 for attempting to kill two police officers. He has also been convicted of an unrelated murder involving a rapper who allegedly insulted him.
During the interviews, officials noted that Mobolade used his phone as a memory aid but appeared to deliberately skip over incriminating text messages, unaware that the FBI had already obtained them from other sources.
An official reportedly remarked, “The initial response from the Department of Justice was, ‘We can’t indict the first Black mayor of Colorado Springs.’ In my experience, anyone else in that position would have been charged with lying to a federal agent.”
The alleged hate crime occurred in 2023, between the April 4 general election and a May runoff election, which was required due to the closeness of the general election results.
