{"id":500458,"date":"2026-10-18T21:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T21:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500458\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T21:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T21:40:43","slug":"former-thao-staffer-says-office-was-asked-about-alleged-child-sex-trafficking-on-vietnam-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500458\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Thao Staffer Says Office Was Asked About Alleged Child Sex Trafficking on Vietnam Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the first day of testimony in the federal corruption trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her former chief of staff also testified about her concerns over the role Thao\u2019s romantic partner held in her office and criticisms of her staffing picks. <\/p>\n

Oct 15, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 4:41 pm PT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2026.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

During the first day of testimony on Thursday in the federal corruption trial of Sheng Thao<\/a>, the ex-mayor\u2019s chief of staff told the court a journalist reached out to her office to ask about potential sex trafficking of minors during a 2023 trade trip to Vietnam.<\/p>\n

The explosive allegations come as Thao faces bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges alongside her longtime romantic partner Andre Jones, recycling executive David Duong, and his son, Andy Duong. All attended the trip, which was spearheaded by the Vietnamese American Business Association, a group Duong chaired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the roughly five hours of testimony, Leigh Hanson, Thao\u2019s friend and former chief of staff, also disclosed concerns she had aired regarding Jones\u2019 unofficial and at times inappropriate role in the mayor\u2019s office, as well as criticisms she voiced about Thao\u2019s staffing picks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hanson said that after Thao returned from Vietnam, a journalist reached out to the mayor\u2019s office regarding some of the people on the trip who were stopped by customs in relation to \u201cconcern that there was drug paraphernalia\u201d and \u201cpotentially involvement with young women.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins and former Mayor Sheng Thao\u2019s Chief of Staff Leigh Hanson wait while former Rep. Barbara Lee files paperwork to run for mayor at City Hall in Oakland, California, on Jan. 8, 2025.\u00a0(Jane Tyska\/Digital First Media\/East Bay Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hanson said the journalist told Francis Zamora, Thao\u2019s former communications director, that \u201cthere was potential a story would be written about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson said when she and Zamora relayed the message to Thao, the former mayor became \u201cvery upset at Andy Duong,\u201d saying of him, \u201cI hate that fucking playboy, he\u2019s always been trouble, he\u2019s going to ruin my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Duong did not respond to a request for comment as he left the courthouse. His attorneys said any response would come \u201conly in court.\u201d They have not cross-examined Hanson yet.<\/p>\n

Thao was vocal in her platform about sexual mistreatment of women, Hanson said, adding she was \u201cincredibly upset that potentially some members of the delegation potentially participated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Andre Jones, longtime partner of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and a co-defendant in her federal corruption trial, enters the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2026.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Hanson also testified she had concerns about Jones\u2019 role in the mayor\u2019s office. He was not a city employee or formal member of Thao\u2019s team, but Hanson said he attended multiple meetings unannounced.<\/p>\n

In January 2023, Hanson said Jones attended a meeting between city staffers and the city attorney about the decision to remove Oakland\u2019s police chief at the time, Leonne Armstrong, and place him on leave<\/a> after reports that the department improperly investigated misconduct charges.<\/p>\n

Hanson said that the meeting ultimately didn\u2019t occur. She walked out of the room over concerns that having Jones present would jeopardize the confidentiality afforded to city employees meeting about privileged information, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hanson alleged that in response to her concerns, Jones appeared to threaten her job, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ll see which one of us is left at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Priedman also asked Hanson about a key aspect of their case against the former mayor: Thao\u2019s interest in elevating Larry Gallegos, a project manager in the city\u2019s economic workforce development department, to a director role within the city\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have alleged that as part of the quid pro quo Thao and Jones made with the Duongs, she agreed to place their favored candidates in leadership positions, and, according to the federal indictment, that Gallegos was one of those candidates.<\/p>\n

Hanson testified that Thao suggested Gallegos might be a good fit for the housing department and was interested in elevating him to a leadership role. Hanson said she disagreed and told Thao he wasn\u2019t qualified, but suggested he could be a good leader in his current department.<\/p>\n

\"\"Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao enters the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2026, for the opening day of her federal corruption trial.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was worried about retaining some of our really high-quality leaders in the housing department, and hiring a really strong director would be important,\u201d she testified.<\/p>\n

Hanson said she believed she and Thao had come to an agreement that he would remain in the economic and workforce development department. But on March 10, 2023, Thao told Hanson he\u2019d be appointed deputy housing director.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hanson texted Thao, confused by the sudden change in course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe shared that she had spoken to Harold and that he would be appointed to the deputy director housing role,\u201d Hanson testified.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gallegos was named Interim Deputy Director that day, just one day after prosecutors said Thao attended a dinner with all the co-defendants.<\/p>\n

Hanson will continue testifying next week, when the trial resumes Monday.<\/p>\n

KQED\u2019s Alex Hall<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the first day of testimony in the federal corruption trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-500458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}