A federal grand jury has indicted New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s former bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, on seven counts of wire fraud and one count of false statement. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Vappie lied to cover up a romantic relationship with Cantrell and political analyst Clancy Dubos says the indictment implicates the major who is described as “public official one.”
“One statement on page nine of the indictment says that Vappie and public official number one in furtherance of a scheme to defraud, wiped messages off their phones,” Dubos said.
The indictment says there were meals and alcohol shared between the two during at least 14 domestic and international travels from 2021 to March of this year. He says those trips cost taxpayers more than $47,000.
So why is Cantrell not facing an indictment? Dubos says federal prosecutors take their time before indicting a public official.
“The feds for decades have required local U.S. attorneys to go to D.C. and sit down with the higher ups and lay out all of the facts and what the evidence is and the folks in D.C. look at it skeptically because they have created a higher bar before you indict an elected official,” Dubos said.
Dubos says it’s also possible the federal investigation into Cantrell is much broader than the case against Vappie.
Vappie retired from the New Orleans Police Department earlier this summer.
Comments