Melendez said:
“I am for working toward a solution and understand the need for compromise, but there is a big difference between compromise and bribery."
Today Governor Brown scoffed at the idea that he broke the law by bribing lawmakers with funding for pet projects in order to win their vote.
He said it was "preposterous:"
"When somebody says, ‘Here is $10,000, I want your vote,’ you got bribery. It’s illegal. When someone says, ‘You know, I think this bill would be better if you included these projects or these ideas or these rules’ we listen, because that’s democracy and that’s openess and that is a compromise spirit that makes democracies work...When we fashion a bill in the democratic system we don’t do it by an autocratic dictator behind a closed door. We talk to people. We get many ideas to fashion a consensus product.”
Click here to read the letter Assemblywoman Melendez sent to Attorney General Xavier Becerra.