The top Homeland Security spokesman, brought in to serve last month by acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, is a former Border Patrol agent whom U.S. Customs and Border Protection once attempted to fire for faking a crime against himself, according to three CBP officials with first-hand knowledge of the incident and a fourth who is also aware of it. DHS acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Media Operations Jose “Lu” Maheda was terminated by Border Patrol a year into his service during the 1990s. Since then, as one official put it, he has “failed up,” getting his job back and eventually becoming a regional Border Patrol spokesman. And now he is the top spokesman for the 240,000-person department because of his connection to McAleenan. “The guy’s a proven liar and can’t testify in court and yet he’s a spokesman for DHS,” charged one CBP official who worked with Maheda at the time of the incident. “He is 100% a McAleenan sycophant.” Under the 1972 Giglio v. United States decision, a witness whose integrity has been called into question cannot testify in court. While working at the Border Patrol station in Nogales, Arizona during his first year on the job in 1996, Maheda left his loaded gun on the front seat of his work vehicle and set out on foot. “While he was out — and unbeknownst to him — a supervisor came across the car and saw the” firearm, the official said. “He [Maheda] had failed to secure it, and it was just laying there, and that’s when the supervisor saw it and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to get this out of here.’ So the supervisor pulled the gun out. When Lu got back to the vehicle, he saw the shotgun was missing and didn’t realize the supervisor had taken it. So what he did was, he bust the window out, then went back and reported the shotgun stolen.” A second official who worked with Maheda at the time confirmed the set of events, as did a third...MORE
A resourceful liar. Perfect for a government spokesman.
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