Former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner has defended his newspaper’s claims over a purported letter from United States (US) Democratic presidential candidate Bernard “Bernie” Sanders, allegedly calling for a US corruption investigation into former prime minister and current Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Speaking with reporters outside the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, on Friday, Warner questioned claims from Sanders’ deputy communications director Josh Miller-Lewis that the controversial letter, published by Warner’s weekly Sunshine Newspapers last week, was a fake.
Calling for evidence from Miller-Lewis, who was quoted in a daily newspaper denying the claim, a defiant Warner said: “Where is the text? Where is the email? Where is the letter? I mean you can’t show one, in this day of technology. If you can’t show one of those things, give me a break nah guys.”
In an email response to CNC 3 last week, Sanders’ spokesperson Michael Briggs also claimed that the letter was a fake. “We don’t think this letter is from Sen Sanders,” Briggs said as he noted that the spacing in the alleged letter was off and that it was not dated.
Briggs also claimed that no one in Sanders’ office remembered sending it. The undated letter, which was the subject of the paper’s article, was allegedly sent by Sanders, the current US Senator for Vermont, to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking an investigation into Persad-Bissessar.
The letter quoted an eight-month long investigation by journalists from the New York Times, which allegedly embroiled Persad-Bissessar in the current FIFA corruption scandal through former Concacaf president Jeff Webb.
Both Webb and Warner are among a group of former FIFA executive who have been indicted in the US on fraud and money laundering charges related to their work in football’s world governing body. On November 23, Webb pleaded guilty to racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering and agreed to forfeit more than US$6.7 million. Warner is currently contesting his extradition to the US to face trial.
Persad-Bissessar has denied any wrongdoing and has indicted her intention to sue Warner and the newspaper for defamation.
Asked to comment on claims from US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who last week also revealed that Warner’s sons Darryl and Daryan were indicted as part of the US investigation into FIFA and have since pleaded guilty to the charges, Warner refused.
“I would not want to comment on that at this time. As foolish and ridiculous at it may sound, I would not want to comment on that,” Warner said.
“Let them (the US) take over FIFA and let them run the World Cup in Russia and in Qatar.”