California State Senator Leland Yee is well known for pushing for more stringent gun control regulations. For example, on his website you can still find this announcement:
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Just announced minutes ago from the Los Angeles Times: "Sen. Leland Yee, S.F. Chinatown figure arrested in corruption raids"
Fox News has this:
As part of the raids, Fox News has learned that the FBI also arrested multiple people including Raymond Chow -- one of the heads of the Ghee Kung Tong, a Masonic organization. Both federal and local authorities were searching locations on Wednesday morning in San Francisco and Sacramento; local TV stations spotted law enforcement searching Yee's office at the state capitol and even caught the senator being led away in handcuffs from his San Francisco home.
The FBI would not divulge details on what led to the arrests, or what the individuals are charged with, but local reports claim Yee has been charged with public corruption and bribery. . . .UPDATE: Now it is clear that Yee was arrested for trafficking firearms. Only in the ninth paragraph does the Los Angeles Times briefly mention that Yee has been a gun control advocate, though even this understates how important of an advocate Yee has been both in California and nationally. From the Los Angeles Times:
State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) was charged Wednesday with conspiring to commit wire fraud and traffic firearms, part of a sweeping public corruption case outlined by federal prosecutors.The Los Angeles Times could have gone into this much more. But it was more than what the San Jose Mercury News mentioned in its 7th paragraph.
The charges sent shock waves through the San Francisco and Sacramento political establishments, as FBI agents searched Yee's Capitol office. . . .
The indictment alleges Yee and Jackson defrauded "citizens of honest services" and were involved in a scheme to traffic firearms in exchange for thousands in campaign donations to the senator.
Federal prosecutors also allege Yee agreed to perform official acts in exchange for the money, including one instance in which he introduced a businessman to state legislators who had significant influence over pending medical marijuana legislation. In exchange, the businessman -- who was actually an undercover FBI agent -- agreed to donate thousands to Yee's campaign fund, according to the indictment.
The indictment also describes an August 2013 exchange in which Jackson told an undercover officer that Yee had an arms-trafficking contact. Jackson allegedly said Yee could facilitate a meeting for a donation. . . .
The gun charges go against Yee's stand as a gun control advocate.
In 2006, Yee was named to the Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll by the Brady Campaign for his efforts that included co-authoring a first-in-the-nation bill to require new semiautomatic handguns be equipped with ballistics identification technology known as micro-stamping.
In 2013, he stood with law enforcement officials and then-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to propose a bill that would regulate assault weapons. . . .
The charges are particularly shocking given that Yee has been among the state Senate's most outspoken advocates both of gun control and of good-government initiatives. . . .CBS News in San Francisco doesn't even mention Yee was a gun control advocate. Of course, the left wing TPM and NPR don't mention the gun control angle in the body of their stories, though NPR does contain a note under the picture that it has of Yee.
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