What's at stake?
The former prosecutor told a crowd of union workers that he lost at least some of his ICE-related cases because didn't work as hard on them.
A former federal prosecutor under the Trump administration and current Fresno City Council candidate made comments at a recent election forum implying he deliberately undermined immigration-related cases he worked on, according to two witnesses who were in attendance that day.
Reached for comment Monday, District 1 candidate Rob Fuentes, did not address direct questions about his comments and did not deny making them. He accused his political opponent of trying to “revive” the controversy.
Fuentes’ track record as a now-former Trump DOJ prosecutor has been scrutinized since late June when he defended his work arguing on behalf of ICE in at least 124 immigration-related cases while also advocating for the abolition of ICE on the campaign trail — only to be placed on administrative leave and then quit his federal prosecutor job in early July following his comments.
Fuentes has stressed that these ICE-related cases made up a small percentage of his workload as a prosecutor before he says he was “pushed out by the Trump administration” and that while he considered leaving his job, he felt he could still engage in “harm reduction” through the immigration cases he worked on.
At an Aug. 6 candidate forum hosted by the Fresno chapter of SEIU Local 2015, Fuentes went even further, said attendee Reza Nekumanesh.
In Nekumanesh’s recollection, Fuentes brought up the number of ICE-related cases before asking the audience, consisting of SEIU Local 2015 members, if they were aware how many of those cases he actually won. Fuentes then added that he “obviously wasn’t working very hard” on the cases, Nekumanesh said.
Nekumanesh recalled an SEIU member asking: “So what you’re saying is you purposely lost the case? That’s even worse,” to which Fuentes responded that he wasn’t going to say that publicly but would say it to the audience that day — which Nekumanesh said consisted of no more than 25 people, including the five council candidates in attendance.
“As if it wasn’t a public gathering,” Nekumanesh said. “There’s no secrecy here.”
Ariana Martinez-Lott, a candidate in the District 7 council race who also attended the SEIU forum, similarly recalled the exchange in which Fuentes was asked about and did not deny losing cases deliberately.
Fuentes didn’t respond to specific questions regarding his comments at the Aug. 6 forum, instead issuing a statement saying that he approached the immigration cases assigned to him “in line with my ethical duties, a strong commitment to the rule of law, and a deep respect for individuals’ constitutional rights.”
Fuentes also invoked the tense city council District 1 race in his statement, accusing his opponent Naindeep Singh, who he’ll face in a November runoff, of being behind efforts to keep Fuentes’ track record at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the headlines.
“I’m disappointed — but not at all surprised — that my opponent and his supporters keep trying to revive this story,” he said, “to distract from the real issues facing Fresno residents.”
Singh fired back in a statement Monday evening, saying Fuentes has a “character problem.”
“He hid his ICE work. He spun it. He played the victim. Now he claims he was sabotaging cases he took an oath and a paycheck to defend,” said Singh, who also participated in the Aug. 6 candidate forum. “Ask yourself, if true, that’s disqualifying and reveals he is untrustworthy. If false, he’s lying to survive the news cycle.”
Thousands of federal prosecutors have quit, taken buyouts or gotten fired since the start of the Trump administration. Federal departments are struggling to fill open positions with experienced prosecutors.
Fresnoland reached out to the California Department of Justice and California Bar Association for comment.
