OAKLAND — Attorneys for former Mayor Sheng Thao and her alleged co-conspirators charged in a blockbuster felony bribery case said Thursday they will need to sift through hundreds of thousands of files in a discovery process that is expected to last months.
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The evidence amounts to roughly 140 gigabytes of data collected from various email addresses, cell phones and laptops, federal prosecutors said at a hearing in Oakland that marked the second appearance by Thao since she was indicted on felony criminal charges last month.
The ex-mayor, her romantic partner Andre Jones and father-son business duo David and Andy Duong are accused of coordinating a plot to influence the outcome of the 2022 mayoral election and later secure for the Duong family access to lucrative city contracts for housing and waste management.
At Thursday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Priedeman said that the prosecution expects to produce additional devices and fresh financial records in the coming months to bolster its conspiracy case, for which the defendants may face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers used Thursday’s hearing as an opportunity to put faces to names of the four defendants, each of whom is represented by separate attorneys.
She didn’t have much to say, but did correct Thao’s attorney, Jeff Tsai, when he introduced his client as the mayor of Oakland. Thao was removed from office by voters in the Nov. 5 election.
“Former mayor,” Gonzalez Rogers told Tsai. “You said mayor. She’s not.” Tsai referred to Thao accordingly for the rest of the hearing.
None of the defendants appeared to acknowledge each other before or after the hearing, arriving Thursday morning and leaving separately from the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on Clay Street.
Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately agree to interviews or issue statements outside the courthouse on Thursday morning.
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.
