Recently I was contacted by someone seeking information about an article I posted back in 2015 regarding Miguel Fernandez and Transtelco. This is the second individual doing oppo research and this is in addition to two reporters seeking information about Beto. I guess this is what happens when people realize that Beto is running for president in 2020. I predicted back in September that Beto (link) was using the Senate race to launch a presidential campaign and, thus, I am not surprised.
But as I was responding to the queries, I got to thinking about pending items I wanted to update my database with. There were two items regarding Miguel Fernandez that I wanted to update, and I thought I might as well update you as well.
As you might remember, on September 17, 2015, Miguel Fernandez was arrested on a driving while intoxicated charge. Fernandez has become a fixture in El Paso politics and his father is well-known in PAN politics in Cd. Juárez and México. There are also several controversies involving misuse of City of El Paso rights-of-way (2014), an FCC ownership controversy (2015) and charges of bribery (2015) in México against Fernandez. Use the search feature on my blog if you want to see what those are about.
It took a while but Miguel Fernandez’ drunk driving case was finally settled.
According to court documents, Miguel Fernandez pleaded not guilty to the charge. Fernandez chose not to challenge the case and instead chose to complete a diversion program. According to the court filings, Fernandez successfully completed the “pre-trial diversion program” and on October 10, 2018, the court dismissed the DWI charge against him.
The other item has to do with the ownership matrix of Fernandez’ company and the FCC licenses he holds. The FCC restricts foreign ownership of companies who hold spectrum licenses that the FCC issues. The Department of Justice’s “Team Telecom” was reviewing the ownership of Transtelco and had placed a hold on an FCC license renewal.
Team Telecom reviews applications for FCC licenses when there is more than 5% foreign ownership or more than 25% “indirect” foreign ownership. The review is required for national security and other purposes. I was curious as to what the status was on the review, so I went to the FCC website.
But the government shut down reared its ugly face.
When I went looking for specific information at the website, I was met with this notice:
I then clicked on the PDF document to get more information and I was told that the Federal Communications Commission had “suspended most operations” since January 3 rd, 2019.
Yup, I was stymied in my search for information by the government shutdown.
I’m not sure how a PDF document electronically delivered ostensibly from an online resource has to do with the shutdown, but it shouldn’t surprise any of us that the government finds ways not to work properly.
As a result, I can’t update you on the status of the FCC licensing ownership debacle for Transtelco until the government shutdown is complete.
In the meantime, know that opposition research on Beto O’Rourke is in full swing. That should tell you something about his viability as a candidate.
These things trickle down and not all the dominos have fallen.
It used to be that workers called the strikes; the government’s job was to sic the policing entities on them, to protect the country from “these evil strikers”. Today it’s the government forcing a ‘strike’ to protect the country from the “menacing invasions” of the southern border.