MIAMI – A former election opponent’s allegation, lodged on a local podcast in November, that a then-Miami commissioner offered him a lucrative sum in exchange for an endorsement may shed light on why she’s now facing a criminal investigation.
News of the bribery probe into former District 2 Commissioner Sabina Covo broke over the weekend and was posted about by the blog Political Cortadito.
It only became public after Gov. Ron DeSantis assigned the case to Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor in lieu of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who said she had a potential conflict of interest in the case.
The governor’s Feb. 1 executive order assigning the case doesn’t provide specific details into why prosecutors are looking into “allegations of remuneration by candidate for services, support, etc. and bribery” and Covo said she was unaware of the nature of the investigation and has not been contacted by any agency.
But comments made by former commission candidate James Torres on filmmaker Billy Corben’s #BecauseMiami podcast during November’s runoff election may provide some clues.
Covo, who was facing — and ultimately lost to — Damian Pardo in a runoff election, offered Torres a hefty sum via a contract with a special district in exchange for his endorsement, he claimed on the podcast.
“What is it gonna take and can I offer you a position at the Omni CRA as a contractor making over $120,000?” Torres said she asked him during a private meeting.
Covo took over as chair of the Omni CRA, short for the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, after its former chair Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was suspended from office after being arrested in a bribery probe of his own.
Like Covo, Diaz de la Portilla would go on to lose his seat in the runoff election.
“I was taken aback by (the offer), because is this the right thing? Like, this doesn’t sit...it was just weird,” Torres said on the podcast.
If true, it’s possibly illegal, which may be why the investigation is now underway.
Covo, whose tenure on the commission lasted less than a year, has since retained an attorney, she said Monday.
She has not been criminally charged.