Resident commissioner distances herself from Pierluisi’s family
By The Star Staff
Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón rejected late last week any link with Walter or Eduardo Pierluisi, cousins of Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia who were part of a federal government raid related to their contracts with the Public Housing Administration.
“I have to tell you that the one who runs my campaign is me, the one who has been setting up my campaign committee has been me, and never has any Pierluisi been on my campaign teams, in any of my structures,” González Colón said Friday. “So those sources seem to me to be malicious, trying to link me with things that I have nothing to do with.”
“I know those people; of course, I know them. They have been linked to the governor’s activities for many years, and in my opinion, they are serious people,” the resident commissioner added. “But to say that they are part of my campaign team, how far are they going to go? No, I am González Colón; I am not Pierluisi.”
“Second, I direct my efforts,” she added. “There are the working committees, which are based at the FEC [Federal Elections Commission], so it seems clearer to me. So [regarding] anonymous sources, the source here is me. And I can tell you about my campaign committee in that it is available on the networks just in case.”
The resident commissioner’s statements were in response to press reports that cited sources alleging that Eduardo Pierluisi joined her campaign for the 2024 elections.
“Never. That never happened. I have never been part of my campaign committee,” she said. “I don’t have any gubernatorial campaign structure. I am a resident commissioner, and I have a resident commissioner structure based at the FEC. So anyone who says that is completely incorrect.”
Federal agents on Thursday morning went to the offices of Pierluisi Isern Law Office PSC, registered in the name of Walter Pierluisi Isern. They also raided a residence in the Paseo del Bosque complex in San Juan belonging to Edwardo Pierluisi Isern, the governor’s cousin. In addition, the offices of American Management and Administration Corp., a company in charge of the administration of public housing, were raided.
Among the agencies that participated in the raid were the FBI, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the HUD Office of the Inspector General, among others.
The defense team of the governor’s cousin Walter Pierluisi, Osvaldo Carlo Linares and Eduardo Ferrer, said federal agents seized their client’s cell phones and computers through search warrants.
“The cell phones were handed over with the passwords, the secret numbers, and the computers were also searched,” Carlo Linares said in response to questions from the press. “Access was created so that the agents could enter because it is information that is in the cloud. Everything was provided, as much as they asked for.”
“The information is very limited because we are talking about a raid,” he added. “The raid is not only here, but it involves other properties of other people that are not related to these properties here, that is, of third parties.”