Mayor Says He Is ‘Victim Of A Hate Crime’ Even After His Supporter Is Indicted For Faking It

Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade is facing calls from local politicians to explain his communications with a supporter who was indicted for faking a hate crime to boost the now-mayor’s candidacy.

Mobolade last week claimed that he was the “victim of a hate crime” even after Derrick Bernard, a black man who has since been convicted of an unrelated murder, was indicted for scrawling the n-word on a Mobolade campaign sign and lighting a cross on fire in April 2023. The election-eve hoax was intended to gin up sympathy for Mobolade, who is black, in his race against a white Republican. Mobolade was soon after elected in the city, a traditional Republican stronghold.

The indictment says that Bernard was in communication with Mobolade, including him letting him know that there was a “plot amidst” beforehand, messaging him the day of the hoax to say that he guaranteed that he would win, and holding a five-minute phone call days after the incident. The Daily Wire reported on November 21 that an FBI official said that the bureau referred the mayor for criminal prosecution for lying after he denied communicating with Bernard in two separate interviews. The Department of Justice refused to prosecute him, citing racial and political considerations, and instead called him in for a third interview, where his story changed to “I don’t recall,” the official said.

In a statement to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Mobolade disparaged The Daily Wire without specifically denying the report’s accuracy.

“My family and I are victims of a hate crime, allegedly committed by three suspects against our city. I had no knowledge, warning, or involvement in this reprehensible act. It is unfortunately not a new trend that politically motivated websites will weigh in with no regard for accuracy or truth, and interest only in sensationalism and scandal. I fully cooperated in the investigation, and it is important that the judicial process is followed to allow for a successful prosecution that brings justice for our community,” he said.

CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Longinos Gonzalez Jr., who ran in the race for mayor and serves as a commissioner on the governing board of El Paso County, told the Gazette that it was an “unacceptable response,” because it is “still confusing as it relates to whether he did or did not lie to the FBI.”

City Councilman Dave Donelson pressed for answers last week at a city council meeting. “I would ask the mayor to come forward and answer questions about whether or not he lied to the FBI, which is what’s alleged in that report: that he met with them twice, said he had no contact with those individuals, however in the indictment, it’s clear that he did have contact.”

Did the Mayor of Colorado Springs Yemi Mobolade collude with three activists to fake a hate crime to win an election? Why don’t we have his text messages if the 3 activists have been indicted by the Department of Justice? Did the Mayor lie to the FBI?

Video from Springs… pic.twitter.com/xJ87NCK4Vq

— Jeff Hunt (@jeffhunt) November 26, 2024

The mayor wasn’t present, but Ryan Trujillo, his deputy chief of staff, said “We’re certainly aware and disappointed by the unfounded and unsourced allegations by the Daily Wire article. We’re mindful and respectful that this is an ongoing investigation, and so we do not anticipate any further comments to be respectful of that investigation for the defendants, none of which Mayor Yemi are included.”

Donelson replied: “What I’m asking for is not to comment on the charges made against those three individuals, but to simply state whether he was interviewed by the FBI twice and denied contact with those individuals. That’s a separate thing.”

Donelson told the Gazette, “How could it compromise the investigation to say, ‘I did not lie to the FBI in those two interviews?’”

On social media, he noted that the Gazette did not print the most remarkable part of Mobolade’s statement, writing: “I still don’t know if [Mobolade] LIED to the FBI – but I do know that he LIED in the statement he made to the [Gazette] yesterday. First sentence of the statement: ‘My family and I are victims of a hate crime, allegedly committed by three suspects against our city.’”

George Brauchler, who was elected as prosecutor for another district in Colorado in November, lambasted Mobolade in an op-ed in the Gazette, saying “lying to the FBI (or any federal agency) is a serious crime. A go-to-prison crime.”

He said Mobolade’s attempt to sow doubt on the reporting, without actually going on the record to contradict it, only fuel suspicion “We prosecutors look to see if the conduct of the witnesses and the guilty match up to our expectations of what an innocent person would do. Here, they do not,” he said.

He faulted the Biden DOJ and the local media, and said the crime of lying to federal agents has a five-year statute of limitations, meaning the DOJ under the Donald Trump administration could still charge him. “Mobolade does not have to wait. He can and should tell us the truth. All of it,” he said.

On the day he won election, Bernard messaged Mobolade to take credit for the win, and messaged a co-conspirator that he anticipated “favors” in return, encouraging her to pick out a city job.

The FBI source also told The Daily Wire that Mobolade personally asked the DOJ to issue a press release proclaiming his innocence–which the FBI opposed as inappropriate, including because the newly-charged suspects could be pressed for information on the mayor. The DOJ’s press release announcing the indictment falsely stated that Bernard sent a suspicious message to his co-defendants, when it was actually sent to Mobolade.

Mobolade’s taxpayer-funded spokeswoman, Vanessa Zink, did not reply when The Daily Wire asked about the FBI official’s allegations before publication of the story that the mayor’s office later disparaged. On Monday, The Daily Wire asked her for yes-or-no answers to the following questions:

-Does he deny being interviewed by the FBI three times about the Derrick Bernard/hate crime investigation?

-Does he dispute that he denied the existence of certain communications between himself and Derrick Bernard in the first two interviews?

-Does he deny contacting the USAO about a press release on the topic?

She did not reply.

Related: Mayor Lied In Hate Crime Hoax Probe But DOJ Refused To Charge Him, FBI Official Says