BOSTON — Crooked Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson has been sentenced to just one month in a federal cage after pocketing $7,000 in taxpayer cash — slipped to her inside a City Hall bathroom. The insultingly light sentence came from Judge Indira Talwani, a Democrat appointed by Barack Obama, who handed down a slap on the wrist despite damning evidence from federal investigators.

Fernandes Anderson, 46, resigned her District 7 seat on July 4 after pleading guilty to wire fraud and theft of federal funds. Prosecutors said she orchestrated the kickback in May 2023, when she ordered a $13,000 “bonus” for a staffer, then demanded more than half back. The aide withdrew the cash in three chunks — $3,000, $3,000, and $4,000 — before delivering $7,000 to the councilor in a City Hall bathroom.

The crooked councilor’s crimes didn’t end there. She raided her campaign account for personal use, filed fraudulent tax returns for three years, and had already been fined $5,000 by the State Ethics Commission for illegally hiring her own family.

Federal prosecutors blasted her betrayal of public trust. “Massachusetts taxpayers deserve accountability,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said. The FBI called her conduct “brazen theft” and vowed to keep rooting out political corruption in Boston.

Yet despite the FBI and IRS laying out a mountain of evidence, Talwani gave Fernandes Anderson just 30 days behind bars. For many residents, it looks like the system protecting one of its own — a crooked Democrat spared real punishment by a Democrat judge appointed by Obama.

The message from investigators was clear: the FBI and federal prosecutors are doing their job. But when it came time for justice, Boston’s corrupt councilor walked away with little more than a slap on the wrist.