Oakland corruption case: Judge ‘unlikely’ to let Sheng Thao challenge validity of FBI search warrants

Court may unseal written briefings in case — and identify a key FBI informant

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OAKLAND — A federal court judge said Thursday she is “unlikely” to grant a special hearing in which former Mayor Sheng Thao and her co-defendants could formally challenge the search warrants that led FBI agents to storm their homes and businesses in June 2024.

“I would not stop prepping for trial if I were you,” U.S. District Court of Northern California Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told one of the defense attorneys Thursday at a court hearing.

The hearing marked an early legal skirmish in the criminal case that extinguished Thao’s political career and placed newfound scrutiny on extensive political connections held by father-and-son businessmen David and Andy Duong.

Prosecutors have accused Thao and her romantic partner Andre Jones of accepting political bribes from the Duongs, who own the city’s recycling contract and had sought to win taxpayer dollars for a local housing venture.

Together, the four co-defendants have pushed for months to be granted what is known as a Franks hearing, in which the court would determine if FBI Special Agent Duncan Haunold made false statements or reckless omissions in obtaining search warrants.

The agents seized computers, cell phones and other documents during the raids, which preceded Thao’s removal as Oakland’s mayor in a recall election and led to her subsequent indictment.

Much of the evidence taken will likely be fair game in the eventual trial, which is expected to take place sometime this fall. The defendants face 20 years in federal prison on the most serious individual counts of mail and wire fraud.

While prosecutors say they have gathered a wide range of documents exposing the alleged bribery plot, they also relied extensively on a affidavit given by a key FBI informant, referred to in case documents simply as Co-Conspirator 1.

On Thursday, the judge appeared ready to unseal redacted court filings associated with the case, including possibly the identity of an as-yet-unnamed alleged co-conspirator, who is widely believed to be Mario Juarez, a local political operative and a former business partner of the Duongs.

That conspirator’s credibility — the prime target of the defense in its pursuit of a Franks hearing — may become a central theme of an eventual trial.

Juarez, a longtime Oakland businessman, has faced repeated accusations over the years of fraud, blackmail and threats against former business partners.

Days ahead of the June 2024 raids, the conspirator gave incompatible and partially inaccurate statements to law enforcement about a shooting at his home that he described as an assassination attempt by the Duongs. There is no public evidence the Duongs were involved.

“It is relevant that the informant would lie about such a serious matter,” said Shawn Halbert, an attorney for Jones, the ex-mayor’s romantic partner who was affiliated with a short-lived housing company launched by Juarez and the Duongs.

Abraham Fine, a prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s office, said the conspirator’s statements ultimately did not add up but noted that Haunold, the federal agent, could not be faulted for what was known at the time about the shooting.

Plus, Fine said, “the vast majority of the affidavit is related to the public corruption scheme, so this whole discussion about the shooting, I think, is a red herring.”

Jones’ attorney also noted that the June 2024 search warrant omitted an explicitly racist and vulgar comment that the co-conspirator allegedly made about Jones, who is Black, that had appeared in an earlier warrant targeting the informant himself.

Thao’s defense, meanwhile, contended that she should be treated as “singularly” different from the other defendants because the FBI did not appear to gather any recording, email or text message sent by her that ties her to the alleged bribery scheme.

“Ms. Thao, by virtue of how the government connected her to this, has essentially been lost in the wash,” the ex-mayor’s attorney, Jeffrey Tsai said at the hearing.

Gonzalez Rogers did not budge, however, accusing Tsai of trying to deliver a “closing argument” in the case, instead of meeting a separate legal standard by proving that the FBI agent had acted in a “dishonest” or “reckless” manner.

Overall, the judge showed little patience for the defense’s arguments, at one point appearing to mock a claim by Andy Duong’s attorney Winston Chan that federal agents did not reasonably justify seizing the defendants’ electronic devices as evidence.

“Really, that’s your argument? That your clients weren’t using computers?” Gonzalez Rogers said, musing later, “It strains credulity that people don’t communicate with computers and cell phones… Perhaps Elon Musk. I’ve read that he doesn’t use a computer.”

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com. 

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