FBI Agents Raid Home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Thao has but to touch upon the event. She had been scheduled to be at a ten a.m. press convention in San Francisco about reasonably priced housing; the organizers mentioned they didn’t obtain any advance discover that the mayor wouldn’t attend.

“It is a unhappy day for the Metropolis of Oakland,” former Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, who’s operating for Metropolis Council, mentioned in an announcement. “Oakland is a metropolis in disaster. Crime, violence, shootings, uncontrolled homelessness, unmitigated encampments, the price range deficit and extra. The largest impediment to overcoming these crises are the failures of management in Metropolis Corridor.”

The FBI additionally searched separate houses on View Crest Courtroom and Skyline Boulevard within the Oakland Hills on Thursday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The houses are believed to be owned by members of a household that owns Cal Waste Options, Oakland’s curbside recycling supplier. The Chronicle additionally reported that Cal Waste’s places of work had been searched Thursday morning. Oaklandside beforehand reported that the corporate was investigated for marketing campaign contributions to Thao and different elected officers.

“That is tough, to say the least,” mentioned PJ Johnston, political strategist and former press secretary for former Mayor Willie Brown, who confronted quite a few FBI investigations throughout his tenure. “On the preliminary phases of an FBI investigation, it’s all unhealthy publicity, and you might be nearly helpless in your means to combat again.”

The Oakland Public Ethics Fee can be investigating the Oakland mayor in relation to donations to her marketing campaign. She had come beneath scrutiny in latest months over issues about crime and the departure of the Oakland A’s baseball group, and she’s going to face a recall vote in November after her opponents collected sufficient signatures to qualify for the poll.

“If there’s proof that emerges that she acted improperly, that by itself is a reasonably decisive drawback,” Johnston mentioned. “However even when there isn’t something severe in opposition to her, she nonetheless faces weeks, months of horrible publicity — all of which helps recall advocates and hurts her means to steer the town of Oakland.”

Thao has “little or no likelihood of survival,” in keeping with Eric Jaye, the president of California-based political consulting agency Storefront Political Media, as a result of the FBI investigation and the connected media blitz are unlikely to be resolved earlier than November.