FactChecking The “Orange Doouche” Blog on Rafiei and the Anaheim Cabal

As much as I hate nitpicking, Vern Nelson and Greg Diamond make a lot of mistakes when they write.  But the number one reason there’s so much venom directed by them to Melahat Rafiei boils down to this: she’s getting credit for taking down the Anaheim Cabal and not them.  So I’m factchecking the Orange Doouche Blog (c) 2025, TheLiberalOC.com

The Department of Justice gives her credit.  The FBI gives her credit (although they have admitted to reading posts from OJ back in the day).  The LA Times, OC Register, Voice of OC, LAist all report that the Feds credit Rafiei with taking down the Cabal.  Diamond says he’s sending two posts to the judge in a move designed to counter 29 letters of support (I trust Irvine Watchdog’s count over Nelson’s).  I’ve sent a copy of this post with factchecks documented and a note to the judge that Nelson’s is the proud owner of five DUIs (and has been accused of sexual assault by a former elected official) and Diamond was removed by the local party twice as a vice chair and member for violating party rules and he was removed as a state delegate to a party convention for abusive behavior towards women.  If the judge cares about the character of those opposing Rafiei, he’ll take that into consideration along with the 29 letters of support for her.

Fact checking Nelson’s post, I offer this:

• Nelson implied Rafiei was — in effect — a de facto CEO for the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) and somehow installed Brian Probolsky as CEO.  The reality is she had zero to do with the OCPA; I’ve done two PRAs with them and her name doesn’t appear in a single email, not on a page of notes, nor in any letters or memos. That’s a lie from Kathleen Treseder who’s told it often and publicly, and in front of Nelson at a public event at a church in Anaheim in October 2023; Good story, bro.  Not at all truthful.
• Both Nelson and Diamond insist I’m part of the Anaheim Cabal.  I’ve never met Ament.  I met Sidhu once at a debate when he ran for Assembly.  I will confess to wanting the Angels to stay in Anaheim and think its high-time for a new stadium and the area around said new stadium should be developed the same way the Patriots developed the Stadium site in Foxboro, Mass.  I also think the city should get out of the stadium business. Any sale of the stadium has to be good for the city and the team.  As for the “business of baseball” quote they love to ridicule, I interned for a NY Penn League Class A club one summer in college and worked for a different NY Penn league fanchise one summer in 1988; additionally, I was an SID for a Division I program for two years in college and have lots of interactions with NCAA admnistrators and Class A front office people.  I also have a few friends who write books about baseball and we’ve had lots of conversations at my house over dinner going on 20 years now.  My knowledge of the business side of the game isn’t super extensive but it’s more than either of these two geniuses.
• On Rafiei’s letters of support; the count is 29.  I was told 40.  And like I said before, she got more letters of support than Vern did for his last DUI that resulted in jail time and more letters of support than Diamond did when he got tossed from the DPOC for endorsing a Republican for DA against Party rules.
• Rafiei was executive director of the DPOC in 2008/9 — when you were in jail so that was easy for you to miss. The feds began their investigation in 2018.
• On Diamond’s post, he might be an attorney, but my friends who are defense lawyers wanted to know if he got his law license from a Cracker Jack box.  If the DOJ and the Defense are approaching the judge with agreement on sentencing, yes the judge can ignore it, but its almost certain that’s how the sentence will go down.
• The notion that this is a national and internation story is wrong and that Bondi will hold this sentence over Rafiei to “blackmail” her is actually laughable.  (Don’t worry Greg, I told them about your stroke and how it affects your thinking and the comment that came back was “that explains so much”).
• Yes, Rafiei accepted responsibility immediately and immediately agreed to wear a wire; it actually is the same thing.
• Jordan Brandman was clearly suffering the affects of mential illness.  He was a dear friend.  And he was a dear friend to others too.  All of us did everything we could to urge him to get the help he really needed; the harder we pushed, the harder he pushed back.  This is a case where Diamond is making up stuff he has no insight about but it sure sounds plausible.  Diamond says the abandonment of Brandman by his friends lead to his “suicide.”  Brandman pushed away friends.  He had just moved to a new apartment, spent money decorating and bought a bunch of stuff at Costco prior to an accidental overdose of meth; his death was rule accidental, not a suicide and this finding was well-publicized. Diamond writes “As I’ve written here several times and said at political meetings in front of others, I truly wanted to save Jordan Brandman’s soul — not in a religious conversion sense, but in his having the courage to be his best possible self rather than the slickest at self-service.”   Brandman used to tell me how Diamond would try to bully him to voting on matters Diamond cared about; threats of negative blog posts were frequent.  But Jordan did not commit suicide.  That’s sloppy.
• This last point made by defense lawyer friends laugh:  Diamond writes: “… prosecutors, who have the ability to move to rescind Melahat’s plea agreement for non-cooperation, anytime they think it’s appropriate, are not in a position to make someone their political operative and pawn. And that seems a quite likely way to keep Melahat on a leash and doing her MAGA Master’s bidding.”  If Rafiei pays the fine and follows probation, she’s fine.  She is not required to cooperate with the government on new requests.  Law license from a Cracker Jack box.