Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, a left-wing “progressive” whom voters recalled in November, was reportedly indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday in connection with a corruption probe of one of her campaign donors.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao was criminally indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury after an FBI corruption investigation that centered on City Hall and a powerful family that operates the city’s curbside recycling program, a source familiar with the matter told the Chronicle.
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[H]er tenure as mayor was marked with tension after she fired LeRonne Armstrong as police chief, saying she had lost confidence in his ability to lead the city force out of nearly 20 years of federal oversight that followed the infamous Riders scandal over allegations of assault and conspiracy by police. The firing left the city without a permanent chief for nearly a year, angering her critics.
As Thao sought to argue she was the target of conservative backlash, her critics began blaming her for rising crime and cast doubt on her ability to do the job. While crime reports in the city decreased in 2024, her tenure was thrown into turmoil after the FBI raided her home in June in connection with its corruption investigation just two days after the recall petition was certified.
Thao was recalled along with George Soros-backed Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. Oakland will hold a new election for mayor on April 15.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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