Former Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander pleaded guilty to a single felony charge Tuesday in the ongoing corruption probe of City Hall, admitting he schemed to prevent federal investigators from learning about cash and other freebies he received from a Southern California businessman.
Englander struck a plea deal nearly four months ago, acknowledging that he accepted cash in envelopes, hotel stays and other gifts during trips to Las Vegas and the Palm Springs area — and then engaged in an effort to lie to investigators. He pleaded guilty to one count of scheming to falsify material facts.
In his plea agreement, Englander admitted to lying to FBI agents about the gifts he had received from a businessman. He also admitted to advising that businessman, who was looking to sell home technology and high-end cabinets, to mislead and lie to FBI investigators.
In some ways, Englander seemed like a politician who had wandered into the middle of someone else’s corruption probe. Englander flew to Las Vegas in June 2017 with an assortment of city staffers and others, at a time when FBI agents were looking into frequent visits to that city by Councilman Jose Huizar and one of his staffers, George Esparza.
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