Mayor Keller’s Office Fact Checks False Claims from Trump Surrogates
At a press conference today, US Attorney General William Barr and US Attorney John Anderson gave misleading statements about the City of Albuquerque accepting federal COPS Grant funding.
Jessica Campbell, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tim Keller, said:
“Anyone claiming the City didn’t accept federal funding is out of date and just plain wrong. After we received written assurances that federal help wouldn’t do in Albuquerque what we saw it do in Portland, and that the funding would not be tied to policies that are out of step with our community, City Council voted to accept the funding and the Mayor signed it weeks ago."
You can see the resolution here, signed by Keller on September 23.
Regarding the timing of completing the grant, Campbell continued:
“The grant funds have been accepted, this is just a sad political stunt to deceive the public with a trumped up back office issue.
After the grant passed City Council and was signed by the Mayor, the DOJ told APD that APD cannot submit the paperwork to the DOJ's own web portal until after October 15. For AG Barr and US Attorney Anderson to then claim on October 14 that there is any delay on the City's part is disingenuous at best, and a manufactured ploy to undermine Albuquerque at worst.”
Emails referencing the DOJ’s October 15th deadline are provided below: