California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has been selected by former Vice President Joe Biden to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services in a prospective Biden administration, contacted not only then-U.S. attorney Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, about commuting the sentence of a convicted drug trafficker whose father had donated thousands of dollars to Becerra’s campaigns, but also the Bill Clinton White House. The drug trafficker, Carlos Vignali, ended up receiving a commutation from Clinton in January 2001.
Horacio Vignali, whose son Carlos was in prison, sought help from politicians including then-Congressman Becerra to have his son released. A 2002 House report stated, “Congressman Becerra conceded that the Vignalis were not members of his constituency but that Horacio had been a friend and contributor of his for five years,” delineating donations of roughly “$11,000 to his political action committee between 1998 and 2001, $2,475 to his congressional campaigns, and $3,500 toward his subsequent failed bid for Los Angeles mayor,” as Fox News reported.
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