Why Is Pam Bondi’s DOJ Indulging Melahat?

1. Getting Straight to the Point

I often unfold a story by writing slowly so you can follow my reasoning without spoiling the surprise payoff. Not this time.

If Melahat Rafiei gets the plea deal that both her lawyers and the DOJ’s lawyers propose, she will become the instrument of Pam Bondi, who will control her fate with the threat to void her plea agreement. Melahat will use her cunning, charm, and craft to serve as a semi-undercover agent of espionage, sabotage, and havoc on behalf of the Trump Administration. Any Democrat who speaks to her again, or speaks in her presence, or even has what they believe is a confidential conversation in any place where she has been, will risk being used to promote Trump’s purposes. She is not above cheating and lying and falsely incriminating in order to save her own ass by serving a new master. (Her powers of self-justification are unlimited.) And enough Democrats are so susceptible to her bullshit that they will let this fox ravage their henhouse, as they have neither the brains nor guts to ostracize her. She is, in multiple ways, a perfect tool.

Do you like Newsom’s redistricting plan? Do you like California’s opposition to ICE? Do you like California’s opposition to the suppression of DEI? Melahat, roaming free among the “useful idiots” in the party politics, will work to undermine those (and plenty more) on command. Pam Bondi — and ultimately the likes of Steven Miller — will absolutely own her if she is granted the plea agreement she wants. Her only chance at retaining her freedom and independence is to take no poison apple from the Trump Administration and just do her time that the Judge grants, hopefully enough to free her from the bondage of Bondi.

In other words, the sentencing of Melahat Rafeiei, future star witness for the Trump Administration, is more than a local or a state story. It is a national and an international story, because this cheerful con artist has the skill and ability to undercut the last major locus of resistance to MAGA: California. But the sorts of people who wrote letters on her behalf — except for this “Lucifer” firefighter who does sound like a Melahat pseudonym — are just too in love with their gal to think straight.

(Note that some of what appears here will reiterate material in Vern’s excellent story on “St. Melahat Who Slew the Cabal Dragon“.)

2. Those Sentencing Recommendations

Blog owner Dan Chmielewski’s (whom I call “Chumley” for ease of reference) latest apologia for Melahat Rafiei is revealing. Revealing, fascinating, and unintentionally pretty funny. (I’ll be reprinting much of what he’s written (or reprinted), in a different order, under (among others) the Fair Use exception for criticism.)

1. Melahat’s Lawyers’ Sentencing Recommendation Memo

Let’s hear first from Melahat’s own lawyers. (I’m using the same excerpts that Dan C. chose, because you, Dear Reader, have a limited attention span.) Rafiei’s legal team’s proposed Sentencing Memo for the Court, which Pam Bondi’s attorneys swallowed uncritically. Both the public and Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha should consider carefully why they did this for a longtime political foe:

“The Court does have discretion to impose a sentence outside the United States Sentencing Commission’s Guideline range. A variance from 15 months to probation is appropriate in light of Ms. Rafiei’s extensive, prolonged and productive actual cooperation. High ranking public officials who have now been exposed and convicted could be continuing their mass-scale corruption absent Ms. Rafiei’s aid. It is likely that Anaheim would have suffered financially had Ms. Rafiei not aided the investigation. Once the investigation of Mr. Sidhu and Mr. Ament came to light, the Anaheim City Council voided a $320 million deal to sell Angel Stadium, reportedly due to alleged underhanded dealings by a “cabal” of business and political leaders…

“Ms. Rafiei respectfully asserts that a downward variance to probation would be sufficient but not greater than necessary to serve the ends of justice. Her brother, Meilad captures her essence eloquently “she is a daughter who honors her parents, a sister who has been a lifelong anchor to me and our sibling, a mother who has guided her child with strength and kindness, and a community member was made it her mission to contribute positively to those around her, regardless of their status in society.”

Now let’s compare this to what the prosecutors’ had to say in their own proposed sentencing memo — compare and, if you can, contrast!

2. Bondi’s DOJ’s Lawyers’ Sentencing Recommendation Memo

Now let’s compare that to what the federal prosecutors — the ones who took over from the Biden Administration’s crew that made all of this happen in the first place — had to say in their own proposed sentencing memo:

“Upon motion of the government stating that the defendant has provided substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person who has committed an offense, the court may depart from the guidelines.” U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1. In determining the appropriate reduction, the Court may consider, among other factors, the court’s evaluation of the significance and usefulness of the defendant’s assistance; the truthfulness, completeness, timeliness, and reliability of any information provided by the defendant; and any injury or danger incurred by the defendant in cooperating with the government. Id. Here, all of those factors weigh in favor of a significant departure for defendant.

On the same day she was initially approached by the FBI, defendant agreed to assist FBI agents in investigating public corruption in Orange County. Based on defendant’s actions, including covertly recording meetings and phone calls, the government was able to charge Todd Ament, the former chairman of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, and Harry Sidhu, the former mayor of Anaheim. Both Ament and Sidhu resigned from their positions and pled guilty to fraud charges; Sidhu was sentenced to two months’ custody, and Ament is yet to be sentenced. Without defendant Rafiei’s actions, the government likely could not have charged Ament or Sidhu. Rafiei devoted a significant amount of time to her cooperation, provided information that was truthful and timely, and risked her own political, business, and personal connections and reputation to do so.  …

[D]efendant immediately accepted responsibility for her actions and spent over a year actively cooperating with the government, leading to serious charges against two other individuals. …

Under the particular circumstances of this case, the government submits that a probationary sentence will appropriately reflect the seriousness of this offense and promote respect for the law, deter future criminal conduct from both the defendant and others without imposing greater punishment than necessary, and serve to protect the community from further crime, while minimizing sentencing disparities among similarly situated defendants.

This is essentially the same thing that Melahat’s attorneys had to say. Beyond mangling of some facts and its questionable conclusions — Melahat did not “accept responsibility,” she immediately offered to wear a wire to implicate others, which isn’t the same thing. Anyway, it is not, safe to say, where the DOJ appeared to be heading prior to the change in Administrations!

What has changed? First, Melahat has extra usefulness to the Trump Administration that wasn’t needed by the Biden Administration: she has Democrats who will follow her blindly and do her bidding, mostly when it comes to undercutting California’s resistance. (Does this seem like overstating her potential influence? Consider that this person navigated herself not only to a key position in the California Democratic Party, but also to a seat on the Democratic National Committee, from a county historically inimical to reforming Democratic interests that MAGA hates! That takes skill and drive!

FBI transcripts of Melahat’s secretly taped interviews show that, after she lobbied (bribed?) Ament & Flint to pass an ordinance favorable to her cannabis clients, partly by giving them a head start on taking advantage of its provisions, they didn’t even try to get the ordinance passed! We can give her credit for wearing a wire and asking probing questions that gulled Ament into admitting things to her that he would not normally have done. That “helped the city” on the grounds that it justified getting rid of one bad actor, but on grounds that frankly was limited to ACoC’s embezzling money from cannabis interests — something welcome, but peripheral at best to the totality of Anaheim corruption! The biggest fish in Anaheim’s corruption aside from Ament were the progeny of Curt Pringle, including Jeff Flint and Todd Priest. Through her ties to Jordan Brandman, Kris Murray, and others, she was in a position to give information that would have deeply implicated corruption in Anaheim — but those bigger fish appear to have been untouched while expendable targets were sacrificed. What happened to members and facilitators (on Council, among City Staff) of the “CABAL”? That was a good place to look if one wanted to root out corruption?

Seeing Dan C. quote approvingly Melahat’s desperate, self-serving, and mostly incidental role in ending the attempted 2022 Stadium Heist is surreal and hilariously ironic. Maybe he hopes we’ve forgotten, but Dan himself, coached by Melahat client Jordan Brandman, was always the blogosphere’s biggest cheerleader for this giveaway (and previous, even worse iterations), regularly lecturing us Heist opponents that we “just didn’t understand the Business of Baseball™.”

But I seriously doubt Melahat gave up even a substantial fraction of what she knew. And I won’t be surprised to hear her privately and pointedly reminding people that they were not implicated by her.

In truth, THIS blog — along with allies like Mayor Tom Tait, Councilmembers Jose Moreno, Denise Barnes, and James Vanderbilt; Cynthia Ward, Brian Chuchua, and Joanne Sosa, [Vern adds, Mike & Jeanine Robbins who were regularly in touch with the FBI over the years] — did far more to uncover wrongdoing both with Visit Anaheim and the ACoC than Melahat did, at far greater risk. It’s rather rich, but perfectly in character, for Melahat to try to capitalize on what others did for years — without her help and with her hindrance, based on her close association with and rabid promotion of Jordan Brandman, (before she and Dan C. abandoned him to depression and dissipation) to turn it towards her own purposes.

3. Enter Trump and Bondi

Remember that all of that good FBI work (and it was good!) came under either the Biden Administration or the first Trump Administration, where the FBI and DOJ were pretty much independent. Now the case is in the hands of prosecutors, and a DOJ being led by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Let that sink in for a moment.

Swallowing the exculpatory framing of the Melahat’s attorneys without gagging was the work of the Trump DOJ. What do we know about Trump and his Administration? I’ll be dispassionate here: (1) it is transactional; (2) it is aggressive; and (3) it demands exquisite, enthusiastic, and boundless loyalty.

(For those of you familiar with Dune, I an concerned that the Trump Administration would like to turn Melahat (a formidably skilled Mentat like Thufir Hawat of House Atriedes) into a captive, abased, abused, and terrified Mentat like Thufir Hawat under House Harkonnen. I apologize for the apt digression.)

California is a huge player over the remainder of Trump’s term. Melahat was a leader of the DPOC (where several seats are at issue), and also an officer of the California Democratic Party, and also a member of the Democratic National Committee. She knows where all the bodies are buried; she is a bold, outstanding strategist; and has minimal ethical bounds (though she does have preferences.) Even if she wanted to resist, knowing that a plea agreement can be abrogated for cause at any time, without a whole lot of due process (even before the present dark times); she could thus be resentenced to even a worse sentence.

If she gets a deal as advantageous as the one that Pam Bondi’s DOJ is offering her, she will be the Trump Administration’s slave. That’s not hyperbole: she will not be able to exercise her own agency because even a whiff of resistance can be used to toss her back into the pit of despond.

If the Court treats her any differently from anyone else in this situation, she will be forced to work against everything that she has professed, for an administration that — deep in her heart — she probably still finds odious. Yes, if free and under duress, she could probably be able to wangle her way back into the good graces of the County and State Democratic Parties and do her part to monkey-wrench it. She has many fans still — the stupidity of the dominant leaders in the Democratic Party defies exaggeration — and she could prove very useful to Trump in helping retain a few Congressional seats, as well as continuing to wear a wire in conversations with whoever Kash Patel and Pam Bondi want. They may tell her that at some point her debt to MAGA will have been paid — but she should remember what an enthusiastic and enormous liar Trump is and expects his servants to be. She would never be loose of him.

As I’ve written here several times and said at political meetings in front of others, I truly wanted to save Jordan Brandman’s soul — not in a religious conversion sense, but in his having the courage to be his best possible self rather than the slickest at self-service. And — as Dan wrote — when you go through something like this, you learn who your friends are.  Jordan Brandman certain found out when he rebelled against the Cabal and was abandoned by Dan C., Melahat, and his other friends — leading to his suicide.

So, I am here to try to save Melahat’s soul. (It’s what I do.)

4. Melahat’s Possible Salvation?

I certainly hope that the Court will, sua sponte (as the federal DOJ is apparently asleep at the wheel), proscribe her from having anything to do, whether on her own or through cut-outs or even offering publicly published advice (for which she could easily be surreptitiously compensated) about anything having to do with any scheduled substance above aspirin or acetaminophen — including making introductions or seeking campaign contributions for any political clients. (I don’t know whether she can be kept out of political consulting altogether, as she has repeatedly failed to show probity, but I’d guess that the judge will.)

I’d hope that the court will not let her be led into temptation; do not leave her owned by people who will use her in ways that will drain her soul. I hope that it will not leave her in a position where, powerful tool that she is, she will be used in ways that — were she not afraid of prison (as she obviously is) — she would never agree to do.

I hope that the court will ask her questions like those I’ve posed above. If someone in her position could serve three-and-a-half years for attempted bribery and wire fraud, I’d hope that the court give her that. She’ll be safer on the inside than outside with the rest of us. And most of all I hope that, by depriving her of her liberty for a time, the court will let her keep her freedom of self-determination. It’s not the Court’s job to help the Democratic Party, even if it were so disposed, but it is part of its job to ensure that prosecutors, who have the ability to move to rescind Melahat’s plea agreement for non-cooperation, anytime they think it’s appropriate, are not in a position to make someone their political operative and pawn. And that seems a quite likely way to keep Melahat on a leash and doing her MAGA Master’s bidding.

Again, I’m not trying to round up letters, but I may decide to send both Vern’s and my story to the Court today, as a rebuttal to the 40-odd letters it has already received. If the Court reads neither that’s fine; but if it read that, it should read this.