Conspiracy-theorizing GOP Assembly candidate once pleaded guilty to welfare fraud: report

A California Republican running for state Assembly pleaded guilty to welfare fraud several years ago, Politico reported Thursday.

According to the report, Denise Aguilar Mendez, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist behind the Freedom Angels group and the "Mom Militia," "was charged with three felonies in 2019 — aid by misrepresentation, perjury and grand theft of personal property — over allegations she cheated the San Joaquin County Health Services Agency out of $10,984 in public money between 2016 and 2018. Aguilar initially pleaded not guilty to the charges before agreeing to a deal in September 2020 that saw the charges dropped to misdemeanor welfare fraud, according to records."

Aguilar, who has decried the reporting as a "stupid article," was ordered to repay the money as well as $385 in fines and a sentence of community service.

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Felony theft of public money disqualifies a person from running for office in California. She is still eligible because she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

Aguilar has been involved in a number of other controversies. She attended the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol but has denied joining rioters. Video footage appears to contradict her denial.

She also has posted conspiracy theories that California's largest utility company is run by Jewish bankers, and a power shutdown over wildfires was actually saboteurs within the organization working for the people to help discover trafficked children those bankers were hiding in "underground tunnels."