California state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) was arrested at his home Wednesday morning and indicted on public corruption and bribery charges, several sources are reporting.
Yee, who represents San Francisco and San Mateo counties and is in the running for California Secretary of State, was arrested amid FBI raids at his office in Sacramento and the Ghee Kung Tong Supreme Lodge of the Chinese Freemasons in San Francisco's Chinatown, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed that the unit is serving multiple arrest and search warrants this morning but said he had no knowledge of Yee’s arrest, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
When contacted by reporters, California Democratic Party chair John Burton expressed shock and said he was completely unaware of the arrest, according to the Chronicle. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee also said he had no knowledge of the raid.
“That’s shocking news to me,” Lee told CBS News when asked about the indictment. “It’s many years of public service so, I don’t know what’s occurred there … I hope for the best.”
If Yee is ousted from his office, the Democratic party would be hard-pressed to regain its two-thirds supermajority in the state Senate, which it already lost earlier this month when state Senators Ron Calderon and Rod Wright were both indicted on corruption charges and forced to take a leave of absence.
Derek Cressman, an opponent of Yee’s in the race for California Secretary of State, called today's events a "wake up call," SF Weekly reports.
"We are clearly beyond the point of looking at one bad apple and instead looking at a corrupt institution in the California senate," he stated. "The constant begging for campaign cash clearly has a corrosive effect on a person's soul and the only solution is to get big money out of our politics once and for all."
Yee will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. in a San Francisco federal court, NBC Bay Area reports.
Senator Yee's office did not immediately reply to requests for comment from The Huffington Post.
Before You Go
