The Brief

A massive report released this week on corruption and influence-peddling in Anaheim city government details a wide range of wrongdoing, including possible theft of taxpayer money.

The 353-page independent report is the result of a nearly year-long investigation carried out by an outside legal firm, JL Group, run by a former police investigator. It was commissioned last summer by city officials in an effort to demonstrate transparency and restore public confidence after the FBI revealed it was investigating former Mayor Harry Sidhu and other key Anaheim figures for corruption.

Investigators said their findings "tended to reinforce" observations laid out by the FBI that a small group of powerful individuals wield heavy influence over city government.

Key findings

The report’s key findings include:

• The city awarded large contracts to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce "with little or no oversight or meaningful deliverables."
• A "potential criminal conspiracy” to divert $1.5 million in federal COVID recovery funds to a nonprofit affiliated with the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce. The report describes it as a possible “theft” of public money.
• Former Mayor Harry Sidhu engaged in "influence-peddling" with former Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament. "The evidence pointed to the fact that individuals who wanted to meet with the Mayor first had to meet with Ament and then pay some form of tribute in order to reach Mayor Siddhu," investigators wrote. 
• The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce took over or supported various community groups and city initiatives, and then used them to gather personal data in order to target residents with campaign materials for candidates supported by the chamber.
• The chamber "acted virtually as a money-laundering operation" for cannabis businesses and lobbyists who sought to influence city policy for the industry.
• Two former elected city officials, former Mayor Curt Pringle and former Councilmember Kris Murray, may have violated the city policy by lobbying on behalf of clients soon after leaving office. 
• Jeff Flint, whose clients included the Angels and reportedly Disney, and several other high-profile lobbyists, including Pringle, routinely failed to report lobbying activities as required by city law. Investigators also found that city officials failed to enforce its lobbying rules.  

Also of note:

• Less than 40 pages of the report contain redactions. Some watchdogs had worried that the public version of the report would be heavily redacted and shield people involved in wrongdoing. The full report is being shared with the Orange County District Attorney, the California Attorney General and the FBI. 
• The Walt Disney Company and Angels baseball "flatly refused to cooperate at all" with the investigation, according to the report. In a statement to LAist, Disney disputed that part of the report, saying it wasn’t asked to participate beyond a request for an interview to the company's chief lobbyist, Carrie Nocella, who declined to talk to the investigators.
• The report includes a matrix created early in the investigation that outlined 58 potential crimes, including money laundering, obstruction of justice, theft or bribery, and misuse of campaign funds.
• The report also mentions “rumors” that Nocella bragged about having inside information from city council closed sessions, which would be illegal to leak to her. Investigators wrote they couldn’t confirm this because Nocella refused to talk, though they did not outline any other attempts to verify the claims. 
• The city-hired investigators met with O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer and his staff in early February to provide information about possible crimes — specifically around the diverted $1.5 million. But Spitzer’s office didn’t follow up with the independent investigators and it’s unknown whether the DA launched an investigation, according to the report. In a statement, Spitzer’s office told LAist the information is being reviewed.

LAist also requested comment from Sidhu, Nocella, Pringle, Ament, Flint, Murray and current Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Laura Cunningham. None returned calls and messages Tuesday.

Current mayor: ‘Rampant’ wrongdoing in city

Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken told LAist Tuesday the report "confirms the wrongdoing that was rampant in the city."

Aitken ran for mayor in 2022, and won, on a platform of reform following the FBI revelations.

"Am I shocked about the information contained in the report? No," she said. "But am I livid? Absolutely."

Aitken said she planned to form an advisory committee of city leaders from different sectors to review the report and make recommendations for changes to campaign finance and other city laws.

"I don't want this to just get put on a shelf and a year from now people can say nothing has changed. I'm not going to let that happen," she said.

Last week, Ely Flores, executive director of the nonprofit Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, told LAist despite campaign promises from Aitken, he hasn't seen any related action from the mayor or current city council so far.

"No one is championing any campaign finance reform ideas or proposals at all," he said, referring to Anaheim’s operations as "business as usual."

Aitken told LAist it would've been "premature" to take action before the report was completed.

"But now that the report has been concluded and we have an outside source that has looked at us and has documented all of these wrongdoings, I think it is time to look at our election system because the biggest losers in all of this are the people," she said. "We're diluting our own residents' vote and our own residents' voices by allowing these actions and lobbyists and these PACs and [independent expenditures] to just go unfettered."

Former City Councilmember Jose Moreno was a vocal critic of the Anaheim stadium deal during his time in office and regularly called out the influence of the Chamber of Commerce and Disney in city governance. He told LAist Tuesday the report reflects his experiences in office.

"Sometimes you wish you were wrong but on this one, unfortunately, we were not," he said.

Moreno said he hoped the results of the independent investigation would help people understand that the corruption and influence peddling at Anaheim city hall extends well beyond Sidhu, the former mayor.

"How were they able to get five councilmembers regularly to vote consistently with little discussion on major public projects, land sales, ordinances?" he asked.

Moreno said the fact that Disney and the Angels declined to participate in the investigation was telling.

"The Disney Corporation … they're the purse string to all of this," Moreno said.

In a statement to LAist, a Disney representative said the report "erroneously states that there were repeated requests for Disney to participate. While Carrie Nocella was asked to be interviewed and her attorney declined, no other Disney staff were ever asked to participate.”

Moreno said the core problem is the lack of strong campaign finance and lobbying rules in the city. As a councilmember, Moreno proposed enhanced campaign finance rules several times in recent years, including limiting the amount of time that candidates can fundraise. But he failed to get them passed.

"It's very difficult to ask a working class city of its residents to keep monitoring their elected officials," he said. "You gotta mitigate as much as possible the influence of money in the elections."

In the report, investigators renewed calls for the city council to approve campaign finance reforms put forward last year by Moreno.

‘Like mob behavior’

Jodi Balma, a Fullerton College political science professor who closely follows Anaheim politics, says the report shows a “blatant disregard for the law” and feels “like mob behavior.”

“It felt like the worst of Tammany Hall, which resulted in those Boss Tweed political machines,” Balma said, referring to infamous corruption in New York City in the mid-1800s.

That corruption, she noted, “resulted in the progressive movement that really reformed government.”

That means Anaheim has an opportunity, Balma said, to develop reforms “that will not just stop the next scandal from happening, but give themselves a city that is transparent, that is responsive, and that truly serves the people of Anaheim.”

“That's what my hope is.”

Read the full (redacted) report

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President Donald Trump launched a military strike against Venezuela overnight, resulting in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

In a news conference this morning, Trump said the U.S. is going to "run" that country, until a proper transition is in place.

California lawmakers are reacting to the attacks.

"Nicolás Maduro was a thug and an illegitimate leader of Venezuela, terrorizing and oppressing its people for far too long and forcing many to leave the country. But starting a war to remove Maduro doesn’t just continue Donald Trump’s trampling of the Constitution, it further erodes America’s standing on the world stage and risks our adversaries mirroring this brazen illegal escalation," says Sen. Adam Schiff, a democrat.

Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who represents areas including Murrieta and the Temecula Valley, says President Trump, "has taken strong action to protect America’s homeland from neighboring threats of narcoterrorism and the scourge of deadly narcotics. The Trump administration has my full support."

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla says, "Let’s be absolutely clear: Trump’s military action in Venezuela is unlawful without approval from Congress."

California Governor Gavin Newsom did not directly commented on the attacks. He zeroed in on a comment Trump made about the L.A. fires during the news conference.

"Unless Trump is finally delivering the federal aid survivors need to rebuild after the horrific fires — nearly a year after California first requested it — he should keep Los Angeles out of his mouth," Newsom's office says on social.

Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, face a raft of charges in the United States following President Trump's announcement early Saturday that the U.S. attacked Caracas and took them into custody.

Maduro, Flores and senior Venezuelan officials face charges related to alleged "drug trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracies," according to an unsealed indictment posted on social media Saturday by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The indictment alleges that, starting in 1999, the defendants partnered with international drug trafficking organizations to ultimately transport thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States.

Maduro and his wife "will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," Bondi wrote in an earlier post on X.

The new indictment adds to charges from the first Trump administration, when the U.S. Justice Department announced a federal indictment against Maduro in March 2020.

That indictment alleged that Maduro was the leader of the Cartel de los Soles, and that he and other defendants took part in a narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Colombian guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Prosecutors said that the Cartel de los Soles was made up of high-ranking Venezuelan officials who abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted the nation's institutions to import large quantities of cocaine into the United States.

According to the 2020 indictment, Maduro helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel de los Soles, which sought to get rich and flood the U.S. with cocaine, allegedly using the drug as a weapon against the United States.

Prosecutors said that Maduro helped negotiate multi-ton shipments of cocaine, and directed the Cartel de los Soles to provide military-grade weapons to FARC.

He also allegedly coordinated foreign affairs with Honduras and others to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking.

The current Trump administration has ramped up the pressure over the past year. In November 2025, the U.S. designated the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.

The new indictment released Saturday reiterates these charges and also alleges that Maduro "partnered" with organizations including the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas and Tren de Aragua.

Separately, the International Criminal Court has been investigating the Venezuelan government for alleged torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detentions.

This is a developing story, which may be updated.

The impact of the Trump administration's stunning airstrikes and "capture" of Nicolás Maduro already are being felt well beyond Venezuela's borders — the most significant U.S. intervention in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama.

President Gustavo Petro in neighboring Colombia announced that security forces were deployed along the border to prepare for a possible refugee influx. Colombia hosts the largest Venezuelan diaspora.

Petro confirmed multiple strikes in Caracas, including a military airbase, other installations and the legislative building. He condemned the attack as an aggression against Venezuela and Latin America, urging de-escalation.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned the U.S. attack on neighboring Venezuela and the seizure of Maduro, saying the strikes "crossed an unacceptable line" and set a "dangerous precedent."

Lula said the action evoked "the worst moments of interference" in Latin America and threatened the region's status as a zone of peace. Despite his past alliance with Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez, relations have cooled since Brazil refused to recognize Maduro's disputed 2024 election victory, widely dismissed as fraudulent.

Other regional powers, including Chile and Mexico, echoed strong condemnation. Mexico called the strikes a violation of the U.N. Charter and urged an immediate halt to acts of aggression. In a Fox News interview Saturday, President Donald Trump said Mexico was run by drug cartels, adding, "Something is gonna have to be done with Mexico."

Cuba and Nicaragua — two of Venezuela's closest allies — are closely monitoring the crisis. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel labeled the U.S. action "state terrorism" and called for urgent international intervention.

Cuba, facing its most severe economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, relies heavily on Venezuelan oil. Any disruption could worsen an already dire situation, and the government in Havana — which has been in power since 1959 — has been watching the unfolding situation closely.

What's next: The global stage

Close allies China and Russia also have reacted. Russia condemned the strikes, reaffirming solidarity with the Venezuelan people. In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry called the Trump administration's pretext for attacking Venezuela unfounded and said if the reports of Maduro's capture were true, the U.S. action marked an "unacceptable assault" on Venezuela's sovereignty.

Despite such expressions of support, Moscow has stopped short of challenging the U.S. more forcefully amid a months-long pressure campaign by the Trump administration against the Venezuelan leadership.

China said it strongly opposed the U.S. action, condemning the move as a violation of international law. In a statement, the foreign ministry said Beijing was "deeply shocked" by what it called Washington's "blatant use of force" against a sovereign state, arguing it infringed on Venezuela's sovereignty and threatened peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the E.U. supports "a peaceful and democratic transition" in Venezuela. But she stopped short of criticizing the U.S. attack.

"We stand by the Venezuelan people and support a peaceful and democratic transition," she said, adding that any solution must respect international law and the U.N. Charter.

Venezuela has called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, raising questions about the legality of the U.S. operation. In a statement, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply alarmed" by the overnight developments, expressing concern "that international law hasn't been respected."

Updated January 03, 2026 at 12:01 PM ET

This is a developing story.

President Trump said the U.S. will run Venezuela until a "proper transition can take place," as he defended Saturday's military strikes that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

"We're there now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place," Trump told reporters from Mar a Lago. "So we're going to stay until such time as we're going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place."

Trump's remarks cap a dramatic few hours that began with reports of explosions in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, the scale of which became apparent only when the president said Maduro and his wife had been captured. Trump later told Fox & Friends that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being brought by boat to New York where they'd stand trial.

He said U.S. oil companies would head to Venezuela to operate in their oil reserves, and the military is set to attack again if necessary to secure the effort.

"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country, and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so," he said.

Watch President Trump's remarks

Trump said there were some U.S. injuries sustained during the operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, but no fatalities.

"This is something that gee, I don't know, is amazing and to have a few injuries but no death on our side was really amazing," Trump told Fox and Friends ahead of his Mar-a-Lago address.

Trump told Fox that he watched the "extremely complex" operation unfold "like I was watching a television show."

Trump defended the operation, telling the network, "You know what, we did a great job with stopping drugs from coming into this country, and nobody's been able to do it until we came along. But they should say, 'great job.' They could say, 'Oh, gee, maybe it's not constitutional.' You know, the same old stuff that we've been hearing for years and years and years."

He was asked by Fox about China's concerns about control of the oil and responded that he has a good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"There's not going to be a problem, and they're going to get oil. We're going to allow people to have oil, but we can't take a chance after having done this incredible thing last night of letting somebody else take over, where we have to do it again," he said.

Trump did not outline clear next steps for regime change, but noted Venezuela does have a sitting vice president and sent a warning to anyone who might continue supporting Maduro.

"Well, if they stay loyal, the future is really bad, and really bad for them. If they convert, there's a conversion factor. I would say most of them have converted. He's had very little loyalty," he said.

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