Vulnerable Democrat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) previously represented drug smugglers and gang leaders in his Texas-based law firm before running for Congress and stressing the need for “law and order,” a report alleges.
UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 27: Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, attends a House Financial Services Committee hearing titled “Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy” featuring testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in Rayburn Building on February 27, 2018. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Gonzalez, who represents Texas’s 15th congressional district, which sits along the southern border, is facing a tough re-election bid in the 34th congressional district against Rep. Maya Flores (R-TX), who recently won the seat in a special election.
On his campaign site, Gonzalez touts his support for investments “in first responders at the community level” while “maintaining smart border security, increased security at our ports, and a more collaborative and accountable relationship with Mexico.”
Likewise, in June 2018, Gonzalez called himself a “law and order member” of Congress in addition to someone who “believe[s]in strict border security.” Again, in August 2018, he claimed to want to “bring security to our border” and ensure “drugs are not coming across as freely as they are now.”
Before his time in Congress, Gonzalez founded the V. Gonzalez and Associates law firm in 1997, which appears to still be operating and netting the lawmaker tens of thousands of dollars in income a year, the Washington Free Beacon’s Collin Anderson reports.
Gonzalez’s client list includes Richard Contreras, who pleaded guilty to federal drug charges after plotting to smuggle more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana from Mexico to the United States.
Similarly, in 1999, Gonzalez represented Frank Tijerina — the leader of the “Corrupt Criminal Mob,” a street gang in Texas — who was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on federal drug charges for conspiring to distribute roughly $420,000 worth of marijuana. Tijerina also eventually pleaded guilty to selling large sums of meth dating back to 1990.
Continue reading: Breitbart.com
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