Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao addressed the FBI search at her home for the primary time Monday, proclaiming her innocence and suggesting it could be a part of a conspiracy to oust her from workplace.
“I want to be crystal clear: I have done nothing wrong,” a defiant Thao stated 4 days after the hours-long raid at her San Francisco Bay Space residence. “I can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me. I have not been charged with a crime, and I am confident that I will not be charged with a crime, because I am innocent.”
Thao, who’s up towards a historic recall marketing campaign this fall and calls for that she resign following Thursday’s search, questioned why the FBI didn’t supply her “the opportunity to cooperate voluntarily” or supplier her any discover of the raid.
She additionally theorized that the FBI search could also be a part of some conservative plot towards her, presumably linked to the recall effort.
“I will not be threatened out of this office,” she stated at Oakland Metropolis Corridor. “There are a lot of radical, right-wing forces who know they will never win an election in Oakland fair and square. They know their extreme views are at odds with our open values, but they have built the rules to protect and preserve their power and maintain dominance over the rest of us. We are a threat to that order.”
She additionally stated billionaires from neighboring cities are “hellbent on running me out of office” and requested “how the TV cameras knew to show up on my sleepy residential street so early in the morning to capture footage of the raid.”
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The information convention was apparently not cleared along with her lawyer, former federal prosecutor Tony Brass. He advised KGO-TV in San Francisco that he had no concept she’d be making these remarks and has since stop as a result of her feedback left him with no protection technique.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service joined the FBI’s search, probably signaling critical bother for Thao. The USPIS, which investigates mail fraud, the mailing of unlawful substances and different mail-related crimes, has a conviction fee of greater than 98% for all targets who go to trial, the company stated in 2019.
Investigators additionally raided close by properties on Thursday, together with at the least one residence linked to the household that partially owns and operates Oakland’s recycling service.
