Activist consultant Vanessa Brito gets arrested at congressional fundraiser (2024)

Con artist has become entrenched in Democratic Party

Activist Vanessa Brito, who dabbles in political consulting and election interference, was arrested just before 8 p.m. Tuesday at Gramp’s in Wynwood — at the fundraiser of a congressional candidate.

Brito, who has been climbing the ladder at the Miami-Dade and Florida Democratic Party, had a bench warrant out for petit theft. She apparently failed to show up for a court date for her prosecutorial deferral on an arrest for shoplifting at Target in 2017. She was booked at the Turner Knight Gilford Correctional Center about 10:20 p.m.

County corrections records indicate she, or someone, posted the $3,500 bond.

Las malas lenguas say the cops had been looking for her for a while. But Brito is hard to find, because she doesn’t really live in Miami. She lives in Labelle, Florida, more than 128 miles away, with her father. She admitted to Ladra recently that she spends maybe 40% of her time here. That might be an exaggeration.

Read related: Karma: Vanessa Brito is in court again — on a shoplifting from Target charge

Then, apparently, someone — probably someone she’s burned in the past — called 911 to tell them that Brito would be at a fundraiser for Sabrina Bousbar, a former Biden campaign organizer running in a crowded Democratic primary in District 13 on the Gulf Coast, who apparently needs to fundraise here. Brito posted it on her social media and an invite lists Brito’s name as a host, along with former state rep candidate Johnny Farias, who was her client, former State Rep., traveling city attorney and Miami-Dade School Board candidate Joseph Geller and Kendrick Meek, Jr., the son of the former congressman, who works at LSN partners lobbying firm.

One would think Geller, who wasn’t physically at Gramp’s, would know better. But these people generally provide their names to other Democrats who are running just to help the party. He probably checked out Bousbar, but didn’t know that Brito was on the committee. He may not know who Brito is. Another host told Ladra that Brito’s past was a complete surprise.

You people need to google her.

This is just the latest mishap for Brito, who has a long trail of misadventures, even before her August 2017 arrest at the Target at 3401 North Miami Ave., where she stuffed nearly $120 worth of clothes, shoes, houseware items and a phone charger into a large silver bag before “passing all available cashiers and checkout points,”and walking out, reads the arrest report.

She was arrested again in December that year at a Walgreen’s in Daytona for trespassing, according to the Volusia County Corrections Department.

At least she looks a little healthier in the new mugshot.

Read related: Once shady political characters are back in business in Miami-Dade elections

By then, she had already been sued by a candidate for reimbursem*nt of $11,000 for a mailer that never existed and had formed a political action committee to funnel third party contributions. Brito also pretended to be someone else for former Miami Lakes MayorMichael Pizzito blast political activist and then candidate — and my favorite dentist —David “Doc” Bennett, who sued her for defamation.

She is good at pretending.

Brito, who takes too much credit for the 2011 recall of then Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and then-Commissioner Natacha Seijas Millan — she played a very small role — also pretended to help people who were having trouble with their unemployment benefits during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. She has been sued by a Broward attorney who worked those cases because she stole more than $30,000 collected in donations for those legal fees.

“She basically stole all the money from the GoFundMe,” said Scott Behren, the attorney who sued her in Broward County Court to try to collect. He said months ago that he would go after her assets.

She’s had other weirdo GoFund Me accounts for hurricane victims and a senior citizen holiday wishlist that sounded shady.

Then, she resurfaced in Miami-Dade, allegedly and secretly working on a number of campaigns, posting enthusiastically about Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and then-mayoral candidate Alex Penelas. She also reportedly helped the recall effort against Joe Carollo for five minutes.

Most recently, she has become the campaign manager for Democrat congressional candidate Phil Ehr, who is running against Congressman Carlos Gimenez and must not have vetted her, either. He probably got her from the Miami-Dade Dems or the Florida Democratic Party, where she has been climbing the ladder for months. Maybe that’s why there has been so much turmoil within the ranks lately.

Read related: Vanessa Brito back again to beat the drum for Penelas and Carollo recall

Brito, who has apparently snowed a lot of smart people enough to become a Miami-Dade County Democratic Executive Committee Member, a member of it’s communications committee, and the Vice President of the Kendall Democrats — or so she says. But she also says she’s a PhD and she’s not.

She wrote multiple letters, including an 8-page missive, to the Central Communications Committee at the FDP to complain about former Miami-Dade Dems Executive Director Robert Dempster, who was removed by the FDP Chair Nikki Fried for violations of party rules and bylaws.

It might look on the outside like Brito was used for that precise purpose.

Brito said Wednesday that she was done with politics in Miami-Dade. She said she was trying to help a female Latina candidate in another district and told the police that she had hired an attorney and begun to address the situation. But the bench warrant was active.

“This was intentional. This was a targeted retaliation,” Brito told Political Cortadito in a brief phone call from her father’s house in Labelle. “I’m just done.”

Ladra hopes that means she is no longer a member of the Florida Democratic Data Committee, which has access to a scary amount of information on every voter in the state. Basically everything except our social security numbers. Names, dates of birth, addresses and previous addresses with dates of residency. It is just dangerous for someone with her history to have that information.

Nobody can say that Brito is not smart or that her work ethic is weak. It takes a strong work ethic and a lot of talent to run multiple cons at once. She is especially good with data, for real, however, and can be a dedicated and passionate advocate. But she uses these skills for evil and self promotion. She weasels and ingratiates her way in, leverages those positions and uses that credibility to keep conning and scamming.

Brito ran this past April for Miami-Dade Democratic Party delegate in District 27. She wanted to go to Chicago and represent Miami and say that Joe Biden had our electoral votes. That would give her a little more gravitas, maybe. An opportunity to speak on national TV, perhaps, and post that on all her social media platforms. A chance to erase some of the past.

When Ladra confronted her about her residency, she said she would withdraw from the race. She tried, but it was already too late. She told Ladra she would resign if she won. She lost anyway.

Now, she is on the county elections website, running for community council. She keeps telling Ladra that she will withdraw. Because, well she doesn’t live in Miami-Dade. She filled out a withdrawal form on Sunday and texted a photo to Ladra. She said she would get it notarized and deliver it on her way to Miami on Tuesday.

She probably couldn’t get to it.

Florida Democratic Party, Miami-Dade Democrats, Vanessa Brito