The Puerto Rico Senate’s full chamber on Thursday rejected an ethics committee report that recommended an official admonishment of independent Sen. Eliezer Molina Pérez and a $3,000 fine, triggering a public clash between the senator and former Popular Party Rep. Ángel Matos García, who filed the complaint that led to the investigation. Speaking from the Senate floor, Molina Pérez accused Matos García of defaming him through a sworn statement and of going to the bank to obtain and publish information about his accounts, warning that his actions will have consequences.
The complaint, filed in May, alleged Molina Pérez violated Article 4(g) of the Senate Ethics Code, which bars using public funds or resources for personal economic benefit, and raised issues about his extralegislative income and reported discrepancies in that information. The alleged misconduct involved using and altering recordings of his legislative interventions to monetize them on his digital platforms.
On the Pegao’s en la Mañana program on Radio Isla 1320 AM and Telemundo with journalist Milly Méndez, Matos García denied any defamation, saying the documents came from the Economic Development Bank through transparency law and that he never posted Molina’s account information on social media. He traced the complaint to an inconsistency between Molina’s sworn statement of $40,000 in YouTube income and a roughly half-million-dollar coffee project loan that is not being repaid, and said the bank had previously gone to court over the loan.
The vote was 5 in favor, 5 against and 12 abstentions; an amendment reducing the sanction failed. The committee, chaired by Sen. Juan Oscar Morales, had held a public hearing on the case.