In a very public rebuke of Alameda County DA Pamela Price, Governor Gavin Newsom has suddenly yanked the extra state attorneys he’d offered to Price, saying, “Your office has yet to make use of these resources.”

It was maybe a show of support, or maybe a stern message, back in February when Governor Gavin Newsom sent a small army of state attorneys to help prosecute cases for Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’ office. Newsom is clearly trying to burnish his credentials as a governor who’s cracking down on East Bay crime. And who knows, perhaps Newsom felt some sympathy for the embattled Price who’s facing a recall, just as Newsom himself faced a recall and needed to call in some favors to beat it back.

But whatever goodwill may have existed there appears to be gone. Politico reported late Wednesday night that Newsom is revoking those state attorneys from Price’s office, and said so in terms clearly unflattering to Price.

“Despite our outreach, your office has yet to make use of these resources,” Newsom’s cabinet secretary Ann Patterson said in a letter to Price’s office, according to the Chronicle. “Accordingly, we have decided to shift these resources to the Attorney General’s Office, where they will be utilized to work on state-led prosecutions originating from Alameda County.”

KTVU has a copy of the full letter at the bottom of their report on the matter. Price’s office did not respond to multiple media outlets who asked for their comment.

This will surely be seized upon by the supporters of Price's recall. That recall is largely financed by tech and real estate interests, according to Oaklandside, with a few donors who also backed the Chesa Boudin recall in SF. Price has argued that there has been possible corruption in the funding and spending of the recall campaign, but thus far, she has been unable to make that argument stick.    

And while recent reports have indicated crime rates were dropping in Oakland, a new Chronicle investigation just found that the city’s statistics had overstated that drop in crime. Meanwhile, violent criminal incidents in Oakland have continued to grab headlines.

The timing of the announcement may not be a coincidence. KTVU’s report mentioned that Newsom would be in Oakland Thursday morning to announce some “increasing efforts to crack down on crime in the East Bay.” A snippet of that Thursday morning appearance is seen above, with Newsom saying, “We’re going to move the Highway Patrol from 42 shifts that they’re currently operating in Oakland, we’re going to increase that four-fold. We’re going to have 162 shifts starting next week.”

Newsom was flanked by new Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell for the announcement. Very notably, Mayor Sheng Thao was not present at the announcement, nor was DA Pamela Price.

Related: Governor Newsom Sending In Wave of State Attorneys to Prosecute Crime in Alameda County [SFist]

Images: (Left) @BidenforPA via Twitter, (Right) @AlamedaCountyDA via Twitter