As a rule, it’s not a good sign when FBI agents show up at a politician’s house with a search warrant. It’s against this backdrop that the local NBC affiliate in San Jose reported yesterday:
Federal agents searched the home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao on Thursday morning, along with several properties owned by men linked to a recycling company that contracts with the city. Law enforcement sources told NBC Bay Area there were four search warrant executions in Oakland as part of a larger operation. Agencies involved in the warrant operation included the FBI, IRS, and United States Postal Inspection Service, a source told NBC News.
The local report added that the affiliate’s camera crew “spotted FBI investigators bringing at least four boxes and two separate plastic bins out of the mayor’s home.”
At this point in the process, there are plenty of questions without readily available answers. We don’t know what alleged crimes the Justice Department is investigating, for example, or who, if anyone, might be charged. Thao’s office referred questions to federal law enforcement, while the Justice Department declined to comment, though it confirmed that agents executed a search warrant at the Oakland mayor’s home.
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the investigation, though there was one detail to the story that stood out for me: Thao is a Democrat and a supporter of President Joe Biden.
In and of itself, that isn’t especially relevant to this specific investigation, though the larger pattern is of great interest. Revisiting our earlier coverage, we now know that the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, has:
- successfully prosecuted Biden’s son;
- indicted an incumbent Democratic senator, New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, during his re-election bid;
- indicted an incumbent Democratic congressman, Texas’ Henry Cuellar, during his re-election bid;
- launched an investigation into an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, Missouri’s Cori Bush, during her re-election bid;
- raided the home of an incumbent Democratic mayor, Oakland’s Sheng Thao, ahead of her recall election.
For good measure, it’s probably worth mentioning that the Justice Department also appears to be investigating Eric Adams, the high-profile Democratic mayor of New York City.
And did I mention that the Biden administration’s Justice Department also passed on prosecuting Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida? Because that happened, too.
A neutral political observer might see all of this and be tempted to conclude that Biden’s Justice Department is unfairly targeting Democrats. And yet one of the animating concepts in contemporary Republican politics is that rascally Democrats have “weaponized” federal law enforcement to punish GOP figures and shield Democrats from accountability.
The Justice Department and the FBI, leading Republican voices insist, are little more than political tools for the Biden White House and its fiendish allies. As we’ve discussed, Republicans don’t just want their conspiracy theory to be true; they need it to be true. This simple, ridiculous idea is at the center of the party’s Trump defense, fundraising, stump speeches, cable news segments and even legislative campaigns on Capitol Hill. In 2024, assertions about a “two-tiered” justice system are foundational to Republican politics. They’re also routinely discredited by real-world events. Indeed, if Biden and his team were trying to weaponize federal law enforcement to benefit Democrats, they’ve proved themselves to be incredibly bad at it. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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