Former Oakland mayor, longtime partner indicted in alleged bribery scheme

OAKLAND (AP) — Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her longtime partner and two local businessmen were named in an indictment unsealed Friday alleging the four conspired to funnel city business to companies owned by the men in exchange for money and benefits to Thao and her partner.

Thao, Andre Jones and business owners Andy and David Duong were indicted on charges of bribery, conspiracy and mail and wire fraud. Andy Duong also was charged with one count of lying to federal agents. All four made an initial appearance Friday.

Federal prosecutors allege Thao, who was elected Oakland's mayor in 2022, agreed that the city would purchase housing units from one of the Duongs' companies and renew the city's contract with a recycling company David Duong owned. In exchange, David Duong and his son, Andy, promised to fund a $75,000 mailer attacking Thao's political opponents and make $300,000 in payments for a no-show job for Jones, who is described in the indictment as Thao's longtime romantic partner who lived with Thao in Oakland.

“The alleged activities of the accused have led to a growing sense of distrust among taxpayers and elected officials,” Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Linda Nguyen said at a news conference Friday announcing the indictments. “As alleged, David and Andy Duong used bribes to further the profitability of their business interests and to obtain undo influence over the appointment of high-level Oakland city officials.”

David Duong was the president and CEO of a recycling company that provided residential recycling collection services to Oakland homes and also co-owned with Andy Duong a housing company formed in 2022 to manufacture prefabricated modular homes for unhoused people.

If convicted of all counts, each faces up to 35 years in prison. Andy Duong faces up to an additional five years if convicted of lying to agents.

Thao's attorney, Jeff Tsai, did not immediately respond to messages Friday seeking comment on the indictments. Court records do not list the names of attorneys for Jones or the Duongs. A telephone message left Friday with the San Francisco office of David Duong's recycling company, Cal Waste Solutions, also was not immediately returned.

Thao delivered a defiant statement in June after federal authorities raided her home, saying at the time that she did nothing wrong and that she had no plans to resign from office.

Voters in Oakland ousted Thao from office during a recall election in November just two years after she narrowly won office, becoming the first Hmong-American woman to become the mayor of a major U.S. city.

She faced criticism almost immediately after taking office for firing popular Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. Frustrated voters, including the local NAACP, blamed Thao for a long list of city woes related to public safety, homelessness and the city’s budget, and she went into the recall election weakened by the FBI raid on her home.

Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee is among those seeking to replace Thao as Oakland's next mayor.

Andre Jones, along with his partner Sheng Thao, the former mayor of Oakland were criminally indicted by a federal grand jury after an FBI corruption investigation, arrives at the United States District Court in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

First Assistant United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins, right, stands with federal officials as he speaks at a news conference announcing the indictment of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 in San Francisco, Calif. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

First Assistant United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins and federal officials hold a news conference announcing the indictment of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 in San Francisco, Calif. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao stands in front of the United States District Court for a press conference following her arraignment of federal charges in Oakland, Calif., Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, as Tuan Ngo, founder of Asians Unite, protests at right. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao stands next to her lawyer Jeff Tsai outside the United States District Court after a hearing in Oakland, Calif., Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, as Tuan Ngo, founder of Asians Unite, protests at right. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao stands in front of the United States District Court for a press conference following her arraignment of federal charges in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify before a Florida grand jury in a Justice Department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump, and is the target of a separate inquiry into whether he made false statements before Congress, one of his lawyers said Monday.

Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed the existence of the subpoena as he argued for a court order requiring the Justice Department to preserve all records from the investigations. He said those documents would be a “fertile source” of information about the government's determination to indict Brennan, an outspoken Trump critic, and would be needed for the defense to challenge any potential prosecution of the ex-CIA chief as unconstitutionally vindictive and selective.

“The reality is there's no precedent for this situation,” Wainstein said in acknowledging the extraordinarily unusual nature of his preservation request. “I've spent decades in and around the Justice Department. I've never even conceived of a situation like this” in which the Justice Department is “blatantly trying to frame somebody for a crime that is complete fiction.”

In pressing his case to U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, he cited what he said was “judge-shopping” by the Justice Department, directives by Trump to pursue perceived adversaries like Brennan and the replacement or resignations of prosecutors said to have raised internal doubts or concerns.

“There's a lot of really underhanded stuff going on" in these investigations, Wainstein said.

The subpoena was presented last Thursday and requires Brennan to appear Oct. 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida. That's the home court of a Trump-appointed judge named Aileen Cannon, who in 2024 dismissed a Justice Department prosecution charging Trump with illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Wainstein said he was told that the subpoena relates to a “far-reaching” criminal probe examining a loosely defined theory that the government officials who have investigated Trump over the last decade, including over Russia election interference in 2016 and his more recent retention of top-secret records at Mar-a-Lago, conspired to deprive Trump of his civil rights. The subpoena to Brennan is among a flurry that have been recently issued.

Wainstein said he was informed by a prosecutor that Brennan remains a target in an investigation into whether he lied to Congress about the creation of a U.S. intelligence community assessment detailing Russian interference on Trump's behalf in the 2016 election. Brennan and his lawyers have called that allegation false. Subpoenas demanding testimony before a grand jury in the false statements probe were issued last spring, then abruptly withdrawn in favor of voluntary interviews.

He said that while he could not easily explain what crime the Justice Department could credibly accuse Brennan of committing, it was hardly a speculative or premature concern to believe his client was at substantial risk of being indicted given the Trump administration's efforts to target him.

“The message is very clear to the personnel at DOJ about what needs to happen,” he said.

The subpoena was delivered on the same day that Joe diGenova, the prosecutor who had been leading what is casually known as the “grand conspiracy” investigation, abruptly resigned amid what a person familiar with the matter has described as frustration from the Justice Department and White House over the pace and management of the probe.

In an interview with The New York Post, diGenova responded to criticism of his management of the investigation by saying, “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.”

When reached by The Associated Press, diGenova said the comments were taken out of context, adding: “There’s plenty of evidence in all of these cases to prove the theories of prosecution. It just takes time to get there, and some people want to get there a little faster than others — and you can’t do that.”

The Justice Department has not publicly announced a replacement for diGenova. The member of the investigative team with whom Wainstein spoke was Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who unsuccessfully pushed the Justice Department in 2020 to back Trump's false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

Brennan's defense team said among the communications they were seeking, and would use in mounting a vindictive prosecution argument, are any messages showing Trump or White House officials directing the Justice Department to pursue their client. They said the preservation order they sought was especially necessary because of what they described as the Trump administration's pattern of failing to preserve records.

The Justice Department called the request premature and speculative and said Brennan had no right to demand the preservation since he was not a criminal defendant and it was not clear that he would ever be charged.

Cobb, a federal judge in Washington, did not immediately rule on Brennan's request.

FILE - Former CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 23, 2017, before the House Intelligence Committee Russia Investigation Task Force. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)