Republican politician Anna Paulina Luna has been gaining national attention due to her confrontational approach to politics and the allegations that she exaggerated parts of her biography and cultural background. A recent Washington Post profile has brought to light concerns about the authenticity of her claims.
The article quotes members of her extended family who disputed her claims of having limited family support while growing up. Luna’s office, in turn, dismissed her cousin and cousin’s mother as not trustworthy and accused them of making fundamentally untrue claims.
The article also attempted to verify Luna’s claim that her father was in and out of jail during her childhood, but Post reporters could not find records of his incarceration. However, Luna’s office has allowed a Times reporter to review a document produced by the California Department of Justice, which listed her father’s criminal charges and sentences over the years, indicating that he did several stints in local jails.
The document was obtained by Luna’s father, who passed away last year. When asked, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation stated that they had no incarceration records for George Mayerhofer, Luna’s father, but they do not keep records from county jails.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department did not disclose Mayerhofer’s local criminal history. It is worth noting that a person’s detailed local criminal history is not public record in California.
The Washington Post responded by saying that the story was a deeply reported story about Rep. Luna’s biography and included ample perspectives from people who have known her throughout her life. Luna responded to the article with a series of tweets calling it “BS” and accusing the Post of printing lies, hoping that they couldn’t be debunked.
