Good day all. The headline is somewhat inaccurate. This is about the husband of one of the House “Squad” members and how he somehow landed a major contract in Massachusetts. The contract is for $2 billion dollars and is to build a new courthouse.
The House member is Ayanna Pressley, and it’s her husband who landed the deal. It looks like people are starting to take notice and going “Hmmm.” Here are the details from Townhall:
There is another developing scandal involving a Congressional Democrat, and it’s starting to gain traction both in local media and nationally. Conan Harris, the husband of Rep. Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), is a partner in a company that was just selected for an almost $2 billion deal to build a new courthouse in Springfield, Massachusetts.
I am curious on why a courthouse needs to cost $2 billion dollars. Granted, there are certain special requirements regarding security and access, along with holding prisoners, but that shouldn’t come even close to $1 billion, never mind $2 billion.
Harris is a partner with John Barros in CoJo Real Estate, part of the Liberty Junction team that was selected earlier this month for the 40-year courthouse lease. Now, that decision is being challenged in court by rejected bidders who allege conflicts of interest impacted the bidding process.
Excuse me? This is a lease? Now I know the United States Government does lease buildings, but for something like this, they should be owning the property outright. It would explain the $2 billion dollar price tag. Most of that would be for the lease I suspect.
Those allegations point to Barros’ leadership role in the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) as one of the major conflicts of interest. Members of the MCCA board also serve on the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, the state agency that awarded the contract to Liberty Junction.
I’m sorry, I thought this was a federal contract. Well, it looks like Townhall buried the lede so to speak. I asked Grok about this and it stated this was a state courthouse, not a federal courthouse. Nice going Townhall. However, this makes things look even worse.
Following the public backlash over the conflict of interest, John Barros announced he was divesting from the project. Harris, however, is keeping his stake in the deal and has yet to face consequences or accountability.
And since this is the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts, and Pressley is one of the “Special People,” he never will, at least on the state level. I’m not sure of the DoJ could get involved unless there is federal money involved in this project.
The Boston Globe wrote a scathing editorial:
Unfortunately, the procurement process has been compromised by a possible conflict of interest, which is casting doubt among Springfield leaders about whether the best proposal was chosen.
The contract was awarded to Liberty Junction, whose principals include John Barros, a former Boston mayoral candidate and City Hall official in Boston, and Conan Harris, the husband of Democratic Representative Ayanna Pressley of Boston.
The involvement of Barros raises particularly troubling questions. Barros was appointed interim executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Authority in January 2026, meaning he was a high-ranking state employee at the time the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance was evaluating his courthouse bid.
I’m surprised that El Globo wrote this. They are almost as bad as the New York Slimes when it comes to being in bed, literally in many cases, with the Democrat Party in Massachusetts. I would have expected this from the Boston Herald.
Business owners James E. “Jeb” Balise and Dinesh Patel filed their case in Hampden Superior Court, according to MassLive.
“As interim executive director of (the Convention Authority), Mr. Barros is a state employee under the conflict-of-interest laws and cannot participate in a bid for state contract without making disclosures to the State Ethics Commission,” the suit said.
Would you care to place a wager that they will find, miraculously, that he did file a disclosure? Of course, they won’t mention that this was done retroactively after the news broke and people began looking into this deal.
Gov. Maura Healey defended the deal.
“This was a competitive procurement process. It was a competitive bid, and the project that was chosen was the one that cost the taxpayers the least. I stand up for taxpayers. I’m all about supporting whatever is going to cost the taxpayers the least amount of money, as somebody who wants to protect taxpayer dollars,” she said.
Govno Maura Healey is pure trash. She may not have been aware initially about the conflict of interest, but she is now. Instead of putting a hold on the project and looking into how the contract was awarded, she’s going to do whatever she can to bury this. She might be running into issues however if even the Globe isn’t happy with this deal.
Mass Fiscal Alliance Executive Director Paul Craney told the Boston Herald, “The Healey administration should immediately pause this deal, release the relevant procurement records, conflict disclosures, scoring documents, and communications, and allow these allegations to be fully reviewed. No lease should be finalized until every question about this procurement has been answered.”
Pressley has not been accused of any wrongdoing by the plaintiffs, and there is no evidence tying her to the bidding process. The first hearing in the lawsuit is set for August 11.
Of course there isn’t. Massachusetts is where the saying started,
“Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink and don’t ever, ever, ever tweet.”
This was attributed to Martin Lomasney, a Massachusetts Democrat politician from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The part about the tweets is from Howie Carr. If Pressley was involved, then she would have kept everything on the down low. However, her husband’s apparent conflict? Yes, that needs to be looked into and potentially the entire contract thrown out and a new bidding process opened. I wold even ban Cojo Real Estate and their holding company from rebidding on the project. Will this happen?
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
