Federal authorities have arrested former top officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as a FEMA contractor following a corruption investigation stemming from mismanagement during hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
Former deputy regional administrator Ahsha Nateef Tribble; Jovanda Patterson, Tribble’s chief of staff; and Donald Keith Ellison, former President of Cobra Acquisitions, LLC, were arrested on charges including “conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud and disaster fraud,” according to CBS News.
The arrests come following two years’ worth of complaints and blame game politics by Democrats who accused President Donald Trump of inadequately responding to damage caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017 when the storm devastated a large portion of the Caribbean island, which is a U.S. territory.
The president, meanwhile, has spent the same amount of time defending his administration’s response and blaming Puerto Rico for a botched emergency response and the subsequent long recovery period.
The arrests this week appear to vindicate him, not his critics.