{"id":501211,"date":"2026-10-19T17:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501211\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:18:11","slug":"following-explosive-allegations-testimony-in-ex-oakland-mayors-corruption-trial-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501211\/","title":{"rendered":"Following Explosive Allegations, Testimony in Ex-Oakland Mayor\u2019s Corruption Trial Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former chief of staff Leigh Hanson is expected to face more cross examination from defense attorneys Monday in the federal corruption of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.<\/p>\n

Oct 19, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 9:14 am PT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/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

Sheng Thao<\/a>\u2019s former chief of staff will be back on the witness stand Monday, as the second week of the ex-Oakland mayor\u2019s federal corruption trial gets underway.<\/p>\n

Thao, along with her longtime romantic partner Andre Jones and Oakland recycling executive David Duong and his son, Andy Duong, are facing conspiracy and bribery charges. Prosecutors allege they engaged in a pay-to-play scheme to elevate the Duong\u2019s companies in exchange for $300,000 paid to Jones and support for Thao\u2019s 2022 mayoral bid. Each defendant has pleaded not guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leigh Hanson, Thao\u2019s former chief of staff, was the first witness to take the stand last week, when she shed light on the inner workings of the mayor\u2019s office in 2023 and 2024 \u2014 including an explosive allegation<\/a> of inappropriate conduct by some members of a trade delegation Thao attended in Vietnam. Hanson also told the court she had concerns about Jones\u2019 unofficial \u2014 and in her view, sometimes inappropriate \u2014 role in Thao\u2019s office, as well as a staffing pick, which prosecutors allege is part alleged quid pro quo.<\/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 is expected to face cross examination from both Andy and David Duongs\u2019 defense teams, which could elicit further details about the alleged sexual misconduct on the Vietnam trip, which was sponsored, in part, through the Vietnamese American Business Association, a group David chaired.<\/p>\n

Hanson testified that following the trip in the summer of 2023, a journalist approached the mayor\u2019s office with questions about child sex trafficking allegations involving members of the delegation.<\/p>\n

Thao attended the trip against Hanson\u2019s advice, because she thought it could have looked bad for Thao to be out of the city so early in her mayorship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andy Duong\u2019s attorney raised this concern to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers during a break in testimony, saying he didn\u2019t object in the moment because it would have brought additional attention and that he didn\u2019t originally plan to cross examine Hanson on the point for that reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, he said that he now intended to do so, since in prior interviews, Hanson hadn\u2019t implicated Andy Duong. Leaving the courthouse Friday, Andy Duong did not respond to questions about the allegations, and his defense team told KQED that any response would come \u201conly in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Hanson finishes her testimony, prosecutors are expected to call a former member of Thao\u2019s 2022 mayoral campaign team and a former employee in the city administrator\u2019s office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former chief of staff Leigh Hanson is expected to face more cross examination from defense attorneys Monday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-501211","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\/501211","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=501211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}