Former Sheng Thao chief of staff Leigh Hanson was kept on after the recall, but was fired Sunday over a 2024 meeting note that referred to Black people as “tokens,” though she says it was a reference to certain Black people being paid by the recall campaign.

The hammer finally came down on former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao seven months after the FBI raided her home, and she now faces charges that she received kickbacks from major political donors, including the offer of a $95,000 no-show job for her romantic partner.

A new set of filings allege that a recycling company and a security firm funneled nearly $300,000 to a Sheng Thao political operative in exchange for lucrative city contracts, and now that political operative may have flipped and could be cooperating with the feds.