Posted on 02/18/2016 7:19:37 PM PST by DogByte6RER
US Attorney recommends 8 years in prison for Leland Yee
Known as being "tough on guns," disgraced former California State Sen. Leland Yee may get 8 years in federal prison for his 2015 plea to racketeering charges.
Yee, ironically known for his gun control legislation, was arrested in 2014 on a host of charges including plotting to smuggle guns into the country via Islamic terror groups. This left many gun control advocates, who up until that time held the San Francisco-based politician as a champion in the crusade for tougher gun laws, dismayed.
Facing potentially the rest of his life in prison, Yee's legal team entered a plea of guilty to one felony count of racketeering last July as part of a plea agreement.
In a 50-page sentencing memo delivered to U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer on Wednesday, Acting U.S. Attorney Brian Stretch recommended the Court impose a sentence of 96 months in custody, three years supervised release and a fine of $25,000.
"Yee demonstrated he was a public servant who was willing to betray the trust of those who elected him by being prepared to sell his vote to the highest bidder," wrote Stretch. "The investigation revealed that Yee concocted two schemes in which he was prepared to exchange his vote on pending legislation for campaign donations."
Caught in an expansive federal investigation spanning over four years, Yee allegedly took over $40,000 in donations, many in cash, from undercover agents during the course of the investigation. These payoffs were in exchange for certain official acts including making phone calls to state officials to influence contracts. Yee needed money to help fund an attempt at the office of California's Secretary of State and to help cover past debts incurred during failed San Francisco mayoral bids.
Just before his arrest, Yee facilitated a meeting with an arms dealer contact of his and undercover agents looking to buy up to $2.5 million worth weapons that ranged from small arms to missile launchers.
Stretch went on to detail that what Yee said and did in private, and not for public consumption, reveals a cynical, rather than altruistic, nature of his actions.
"These serious offenses were then compounded by Yee's willingness to engage in arms trafficking in order to come up with more campaign donations ...," wrote Stretch. "Despite the fact that Yee was at the time publicly supporting gun control legislation and was in the news for being the victim of threats from an individual unhappy with Yee's stance, in private, Yee told UCE 4599 [and FBI informant] he was 'agnostic' about the gun trafficking. 'People need what they need', he told UCE 4599."
Stretch continued by saying:
These episodes and statements by Yee, along with his offense conduct, demonstrate a venal attitude toward his position as an elected public official and a willingness to abuse his position of trust in any number of ways. They also reveal a disconnect between the face that Yee puts out to the public and his true nature and character. They necessarily cast a shadow over his career as a public servant and legislation he has sponsored.
The bottom line for everyone paying attention will be the length of the prison sentence imposed. A slap on the wrist sentence would convey to all public officials in California that the federal Court does not regard flagrant public corruption as particularly serious. Every person holding elected office and facing the same fundraising challenges as Yee would engage in the obvious calculation: given the huge financial challenges of raising sufficient money for a successful electoral run, the benefit is worth the minimal risk. That cannot possibly be what this Court would want to result from this important case.
Judge Breyer is set to rule on Yee’s formal sentencing on February 26.
Well ... once "Machine Gun Lee" gets out of federal prison, he can always fall back on his good friends ... the Philippine muslim terrorist gangs.
Oh, the sweet irony for one of California’s toughest fringe lunatic liberal Democrat anti gun rights advocates. Prison time for gun running...
Copy. Paste.
;-)
Not nearly enough time for that ahole!
He needs to burn for what he’s put us through and for the legacy he’s created in CA politics.
If an average citizen even came close to the level of crimes this ahole committed, they’d be in the gas chamber (hyperbole, but you get the point).
I cried more than eight Tears at Phantom of the Opera.
Seriously though...
i hope every night is girls’ night out for him in prison.
8 tears? Well the band “question mark and the mysterions” recommends “96 tears”.
CC
8? I won’t even shed one.
And Eric Holder for his gun running scheme gets?!!!
He didn’t kill anybody so I don’t think he earn those tears.
Tears? Proofread before posting.
Tears are better than sobbing uncontrollably,I guess.
.
tehehehe
Of course he was pro gun control. Any gun smuggler knows that stricter laws increase your profit margin.
This being a basic principle of economics, few leftidiots (none) understand this.
If ‘tears’ are in reference to ‘tearing’ something, there will be some prison mates that will give him more than 8 tears.
8 Tears ?
Leland Dwee..
I recommend 80+ years, all of them at Gitmo.
This guy was going to send money to an Islamist terrorist group in order to purchase weapons that, if the FBI agents had been real arms dealers, would have wound up in North Africa and other terrorist hotbeds. That takes a special kind of soul-less evil and treachery. What a (string of words not allowed at FR).
Don’t get too excited. This will be one of Obama’s first pardons for a faithful minion working the trenches here in Cali.
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