FBI probe is Biden ploy to meddle in local polls, Quiboloy counsel insists
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:31 p.m.) — Developments in a US labor trafficking case against Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and others are part of a ploy for the US government to interfere in the May elections, his lawyer claimed Sunday.
The US Department of Justice over the weekend said that a paralegal admitted to participating in the trafficking scheme of Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name church.
According to the US DOJ, Los Angeles paralegal Maria de Leon "has agreed to plead guilty to participating in a conspiracy to violate US immigration laws by preparing and filing fraudulent documents" for Quiboloy’s KOJC over eight years. She has agreed to cooperate in the case against Quiboloy and others.
"The investigation into KOJC activities is being led by the FBI, which is receiving substantial assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s Fraud Detection and National Security Unit, the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation," the US DOJ also said in its statement.
RELATED: US: Quiboloy arrest not related to Philippine elections
"I think this is part of the pattern again of the United States government to intervene in our elections. The timing is always suspect," Quiboloy's lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said in a briefing aired Sunday on the media network owned by Quiboloy.
He also said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation released its wanted poster of the so-called "Appointed Son of God" Quiboloy after his endorsement of the Marcos-Duterte tandem early last month.
Topacio took the same stance then, questioning the timing of the poster’s release since the indictment against Quiboloy for engaging in sex trafficking of children and adults by force, fraud, and coercion on top of conspiracy and cash smuggling that was already made in November last year.
Topacio also dismissed the US DOJ's latest statement as having been done "because they needed a break in this case". He said, without providing evidence, that the US is motivated "to further its political interests."
"Ginagamit po talaga ang makinarya nitong Biden administration para makialam sa atin," Topacio also said.
(They are really using the Biden administration’s machinery to interfere with us.)
He said the probe, which began in 2021, may be meant to discredit SMNI, the media network owned by Quiboloy and that aired Topacio's briefing.
Michael Jay Green, KOJC’s general counsel in Hawaii said the 73-year-old De Leon might have been intimidated to take the plea agreement. De Leon was one of the six defendants in the case against Quiboloy.
The remaining five defendants in the case are scheduled to be tried on March 21 next year. Three of whom, including Quiboloy himself, are considered fugitives and believed to be in the Philippines.
A day earlier, Quiboloy’s camp also said De Leon is not affiliated with KOJC. — Kaycee Valmonte
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