FBI quiz Truss adviser in bribery probe

A TOP adviser to Liz Truss has been interviewed by the FBI about an alleged plot to rig an election in Puerto Rico.

Mark Fullbrook, Downing Street’s chief of staff, is cooperating with the relevant enforcement authorities as a witness.

The inquiry centres on an alleged bribe by Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, who is said to have promised to help a former governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez Garced, get re-elected if she sacked an official investigating a bank he owned there. It is alleged Mr Velutini promised $300,000 (£260,000) for her 2020 re-election campaign. They deny any wrongdoing.

According to The Sunday Times, Mr Velutini paid the money to CT Group, the Australian-British lobbying firm founded by Sir Lynton Crosby. CT group supported Miss Garced in her unsuccessful re-election bid.

Mr Fullbrook, then CT’s chief global projects officer, is said to have taken the lead, according to court documents. There is no suggestion CT Group or Mr Fullbrook had any knowledge of any alleged bribery or corruption, nor that Mr Fullbrook carried out any work for Miss Garced.

The Sunday Times said Mr Fullbrook, 60, was made a formal subject of a US Department of Justice and FBI investigation this year. A spokesman for Mr Fullbrook said: ‘The work was engaged only by Mr Herrera [Velutini]... to conduct opinion research for him. Mr Fullbrook never did any work for, nor presented research findings to, the governor or her campaign.’