Based on his woke policies, California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, is one of the most detestable Democrats in that state's government.

He's sued Catholic hospitals for not performing abortions. His office "accidentally" leaked gun owners' data in his shame-'em website on gun violence. He's sued Huntington Beach to drop its voter ID law.  He's ended cash bail. And he's well known for writing deceptively worded propositions to ensure that voters approve hideous tax hikes to keep the money to Sacramento's pols rolling.

Now he's neck deep in what looks like a sump of political corruption.

According to Ashley Zavala of KCRA:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta's reelection campaign spent nearly half a million dollars on legal fees and services this year to a private law firm amid a federal bribery investigation.

 

Two days before he announced he would not run for governor and seek reelection as attorney general in February, Bonta made five separate payments to the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati totaling $468,228.

 

Campaign finance records show the payments were for "professional services (legal, accounting)." The money specifically came from his 2026 reelection campaign account, which had about $6.2 million in it as of October. 

 

Dan Newman, Bonta's senior adviser, confirmed to KCRA 3 that the payments are for legal help in the East Bay bribery investigation that involves Oakland's ex-mayor Sheng Thao and the Duong family. Bonta was not charged with a crime when the investigation was made public in January.

"There are of course ongoing legal proceedings in the East Bay in which several people were charged with serious crimes," Newman said in a statement. "The AG wants to ensure that anyone who committed a crime is held accountable, so he engaged outside legal counsel to help his law enforcement partners pursue justice."

What?

Since when do federal prosecutors need "help" from lawyers funneling payments from the personal campaign funds of California's state attorney general? If Bonta had really wanted to 'help' why didn't he hand over state funds to the federal lawmen directly?

Was the cash paid to help Thao and the Duongs? Was it a bid to pay off lawmen to keep his name out of this stinky scandal, which is still headed to court? Was it cash to pay off witnesses for their silence, witnesses who might have known a thing or two about Bonta's involvement with the corrupt Oakland machine? 

I have no idea.

All I can think, though, is that this is a very strange, large, payment to make, coming from a fund that's meant to finance Bonta's own elections, and not to help federal lawmen do their thing. And the use of a lawyer for the payments is weird, too. Can he explain why he didn't hand the federal lawmen his campaign coffer cash directly if he was so interested in being of "help"? Why did he use the law office as a fulcrum?

It's redolent of the strange use of a law firm that Hillary Clinton's political campaign was involved in, back when the Clinton campaign funneled money to the law firm of Marc Elias, after which the cash was passed on to Fusion GPS to create the phony Steele dossier.

Law firms seem pretty handy ways for politicians of Bonta's and other Democrats' ilk to launder money, and campaign cash has suddenly become a slush fund. 

What this might be about is anyone's guess, but if the Feds aren't looking at this too as an extension of the Thao investigation, they are missing what's likely the real story. Nobody forks out half a million dollars without expecting somethin in return. The feds should be all over this to find out exactly why.

Image: Pi.1415926535, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed