The mother of Ana Alliegro, who remains jailed on charges related to an ongoing federal campaign-finance scandal tied to former congressman David Rivera, says she has been unable to speak or meet with her daughter since her incarceration last Friday.
“I want to see her, talk to her and explain what is happening,” Agueda Alliegro told AmericaTeVé Channel 41 on Wednesday. “She is disoriented. She is ill.”
“I don’t know what Ana has done, but she’s innocent until a jury says different,” she said. “Those are the laws of this land.”
AmericaTeVé correspondent Erika Carrillo interviewed Alliegro.
According to a federal indictment, Ana Alliegro and unnamed “co-conspirators” helped steer almost $82,000 in unreported contributions to the campaign of another co-conspirator, Justin Lamar Sternad, in a 2012 Democratic congressional primary.
Sternad pleaded guilty last year. He recently named Rivera and Ana Alliegro as the clandestine and driving forces behind his Democratic campaign. Rivera has denied wrongdoing.
Ana Alliegro on Monday pleaded not guilty to four counts of making a false statement, conspiring and making illegal campaign contributions. She faces a maximum five years in prison on each charge.
U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Mulvihill asked the court to deny bond for Ana Alliegro, saying she is a “flight risk.” Ana Alliegro has twice left Miami for Nicaragua when Mulvihill and the FBI wanted her to stay.
Ana Alliegro was deported from Nicaragua on Friday and returned to Miami to face the federal charges.
“I do not understand why they paraded her before the press in Nicaragua, handcuffed like a criminal. I understand that she has to be handcuffed, but she is not a terrorist; she didn’t kill anyone,” said the mother.
The mother said her daughter went to work in Nicaragua because she didn’t have any money.
“For me as a mother, this has been very painful,” she said.
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