Rubio and wife received 17 traffic tickets

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and his wife Jeanette Rubio have received a combined 17 citations for traffic infractions in Florida, records show.

The tally, reported by The New York Times on Friday, comes from a search of Miami-Dade and Duval County court records available from 1997.

{mosads}The senator and 2016 presidential candidate is the more-law abiding spouse, the report notes, receiving four of the couple’s citations, with his wife notching 13 infractions.

The couple received citations for speeding, driving through red lights and careless driving.

The report said Marco Rubio’s first citation was in 1997 before he entered politics, when he was ticketed for careless driving. He was fined and took voluntary driving courses.

Records show he followed that incident with a speeding ticket in 2009, after which he took more driving classes.

After that, the 2016 contender faced having his driving license suspended for failing to stop at a red traffic light.

Alex Hanna, the Rubios’ lawyer, paid a $16 fee for processing an appeal of the ticket and eventually got it dismissed, The New York Times reported.

Paying the fee also waived a possible license suspension over the unpaid cost and the citation, it added.

Hanna also helped Marco Rubio avoid penalties after a 2012 infraction when he was caught ignoring a stop sign.

“Senator Rubio’s license has always been in good standing,” he said in a statement provided by the Florida lawmaker’s campaign. “This matter was resolved by the court system and at no point was the license suspended by the D.M.V.”

Records indicate that Jeanette Rubio, meanwhile, has faced having her license suspended three times.

The ex-Miami Dolphins cheerleader has earned citations for speeding, careless driving and lacking insurance documentation.

The Rubios have so far tallied over $1,000 in traffic penalties together, according to the Times.

It is unclear how the numerous incidents affected their car insurance policies and premiums.

UPDATE 12:56 p.m.: The Washington Free Beacon reported on Friday that the Rubios’ traffic citations were examined by American Bridge, a liberal opposition research firm.

It said that records showed American Bridge operatives had accessed the Rubio’s Miami-Dade County citations on May 26.

The publication additionally noted that none of the three New York Times reporters who first reported on the Rubio’s traffic history appeared in the same documents.

UPDATE #2 2:12 p.m.: New York Times Washington, D.C. bureau chief Carolyn Ryan refuted any connection with American Bridge research on Friday.

“We came across this on our own,” she said in an email, according to Politico.

“Steve Eder and Kitty Bennett noticed it on Tuesday while looking into something else – it is almost all online,” Ryan said.

“We hired a document retrieval service in Florida and got copies of the paper records ourselves,” she added. “They came back yesterday.”

Politico added that The Washington Free Beacon had not yet responded on Friday afternoon to a request to disclose its source alleging cooperation between American Bridge and The New York Times.