The third week of the federal corruption trial of former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao, her former romantic partner, Andre Jones, and Andy and David Duong, the owners of California Waste Solutions begins this morning. The Oaklandside reporter Natalie Orenstein told KALW what happened last week and what jurors and spectators can expect to hear this week.
This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Natalie Orenstein: [Last week] “The FBI agent, Catherine Barclay, who’s been overseeing this case, testifying in order to enter dozens of pieces of evidence into the record, these are recorded phone calls and text messages, and bank statements, and so on and so forth.
"Some of it was, honestly, a little dry, but a lot of it was eye-opening as well. And the week ended with the beginning of the cross-examination of this special agent, where the defense attempted to pick apart some of this evidence.
"This week will continue this cross-examination, where defense attorneys are trying to argue that, sure, there are dozens of pieces of evidence in this case, but none of them are definitively proving bribery. There’s no, say, recorded phone call, where Sheng Thao says to one of the Duong family members, ‘Yeah, give me this amount of money in exchange, I’ll do this political favor for you.’ Of course, the government says, ‘Well, we have a whole bunch of pieces of evidence here, that together paint a picture of conspiracy and bribery.’”
