A witness in the Sheng Thao investigation claims there is “compromising” video tying state Attorney General Rob Bonta into the whole mess, which may be a hogwash claim, but Bonta has spent about $500,000 on lawyers to defend himself.

Not long after then-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s house was raided by the FBI in the summer of 2024, a quickie scandal bubbled up that state Attorney General Rob Bonta had some tangential involvement, vis a vis his helping steer $680,000 in state loan money to a failed energy startup run by one of the figures in the Sheng Thao scandal. That scandal never went anywhere, and Bonta, who was a state Assemblymember at the time of the loan, was never shown to have any wrongdoing on his hands.

But it raised a few eyebrows earlier this week when the Bay Area News Group exposed that Bonta had paid $468,000 to attorneys at the high-priced Silicon Valley law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, presumably to defend himself in that mess. That just seems like a lot of legal fees for a small scandal that never went anywhere. Bonta’s senior adviser Dan Newman told reporters that the legal work was just “providing information that could be helpful to the investigation of those implicated.”

Ummm, there may be more to that story. Now the Bay Area News Group reports that Bonta received a letter saying he was being blackmailed, and blackmailed by the very same people who are accused of bribing Sheng Thao. The letter is from a very curious character in the Sheng Thao scandal named Mario Juarez, who’s described by the Chronicle as “an Oakland businessman with a history of financial troubles who twice ran for city council.” Juarez has notched some unflattering headlines about him, regarding felony charges for $53,000 in bounced checks (charges since dismissed), and allegedly bilking $4.5 million from investors.

Though notably, it is generally believed that Juarez is now the FBI’s informant and whistleblower on the Sheng Thao case, and has turned against the alleged bribe-givers who are now being prosecuted. The letter to Bonta is dated May 9, 2024, which is a few weeks before the Sheng Thao raid, and just days after Juarez was roughed up by mysterious thugs outside the headquarters of Cal Waste Solutions, a company that just happens to be run by those aforementioned alleged bribe-givers.

Those alleged bribe-givers are high-rolling Oakland businessmen David and Andy Duong, and boy are they prolific political donors too. Above we see Andy Duong chilling in a limo with Rob Bonta, so there is some established relationship between Bonta and a guy who’s now facing trial for bribing Sheng Thao.

The News Group obtained that letter from Juarez to Bonta. The letter tells Bonta that Andy Duong supposedly “has a recording of you in a compromising situation and that he routinely engages in entertaining elected and other officials to extract recordings without their knowledge to later use in blackmail circumstances.” The letter also adds that “the revelation of the videos would cause public embarrassment at the least or expose illicit activities, including the use (of) drugs among other matters.”

Those are some crazy accusations! But some of the letter’s claims also panned out. The letter disclosed that Sheng Thao’s boyfriend Andre Jones was being paid more than $80,000 “for fictitious work, as well as illegal financial contributions during the mayoral campaign,” which the FBI said was true in their indictment of Thao and her boyfriend. The letter adds that “the Duong Family has close ties to individuals in leadership” at the Oakland Police Department, which is why Juarez says he went to Bonta.

Bonta is pushing back. He went on KQED on Thursday and insisted that “the reference to any video is absolutely not true. It’s false and there is no video.”

As we get closer to the Sheng Thao trial, the Duongs are completely going after Mario Juarez’s credibility, as he does have a number of skeletons in his closet, and it appears he is the FBI’s key witness against them. Though the Sheng Thao trial is not scheduled to start until all the way out on October 19, 2026.

Related: AG Rob Bonta Finds Himself Possibly Dragged Into Whatever the Sheng Thao Raid Is All About [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 15: California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks during a news conference outside of an Amazon distribution facility on November 15, 2021 in San Francisco, California. Bonta announced that Amazon Inc. will have to pay a $500,000 fine after the company failed to adequately notify workers and officials about coronavirus cases at its facilities pursuant to California Assembly Bill 865. The bill also requires companies to share COVID-19 safety plans, benefits and protections with employees. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)