It may just be a legal technicality, or it may be a sign that the FBI smells something fishy with the Oakland PD, as the latest federal subpoena in “Sheng Thao raid-gate” asks for a slew of records from the Oakland Police Department.

Now nearly a full month later, we still don’t know why the FBI raided Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home on the morning of June 20. And no one has been publicly accused of any wrongdoing in the affair (yet), at least by the feds. But the FBI does not go around raiding elected officials’ homes, or the homes of their biggest campaign donors, just for kicks. So journalists are certainly sniffing around for clues to what this was all about, and what it could be about if and when anyone is charged with anything.  

Last week, Oaklandside reported that the FBI had freshly subpoenaed phone directory records from the Oakland Police Department. And in follow-up reporting today, the Bay Area News Group notes that the FBI has also subpoenaed information on federal funds received by the City of Oakland.

Per the News Group, a July 10 subpoena from the Department of Justice asks for information on “all sources of federal funding the City has received” from the beginning of 2021. (That subpoena also asks phone directory information on the Oakland City Attorney’s Office, but a superseding subpoena from July 12 does not ask for that information, so that office would appear to not be in any jeopardy.)

The federal funding request validates a theory that the FBI may be investigating alleged illegal campaign donations from executives at Cal Waste Management. Those executives had also been working on a new recycling plant at the Oakland Army Base, which is stalled. That same base was going to be used as a “tiny homes for the homeless” site proposed by Oakland businessman Mario Juarez, who’s been accused of being a “straw donor” who funneled the Cal Waste Solutions executives’ illegal donations in his own name.

And Juarez says he was shot at several times outside his Oakland home 11 days before the Thao raid. Juarez also said he was beaten up and assaulted outside Cal Waste Solutions headquarters on May 3.

Legal experts say the FBI subpoena of Oakland Police records might not be an investigation into the police themselves, but any calls they responded to which may have involved Cal Waste Solutions. San Jose State University Department of Justice Studies professor Greg Woods tells KGO that potential victims "would call the Oakland Police Department to report such an encounter, such as potential victimization.”

So this may be a case where the FBI is not investigating the Oakland PD, but instead just wanting to look through their phone records to try and connect some dots. We still don’t know where all of this is going, and we should note Mayor Thao continues to insist she is innocent and has been unfairly targeted and harassed.

Related: FBI Agents Raid Home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao [SFist]

Image: Mx. Granger via Wikimedia Commons