FBI Raids California Senator’s Office For Mysterious Reasons [Video]

An FBI raid Tuesday on the Sacramento office of California state senator Ron Calderon has left a lot of unanswered questions. A brief statement from Tony Beard, chief sergeant at arms, announced this curt message:

“This afternoon, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation served search warrants in the State Capitol at the office of Sen. Ron Calderon and in the Legislative Office Building at the Latino Legislative Caucus office.

“Those warrants are sealed by order of the federal court; therefore we have no further information. The Senate has and will continue to fully cooperate with the agents in this matter.”

Sen. Ron Calderon is a Democrat and the head of the Latino Legislative Caucus. He was not on the scene of the search, and he hasn’t spoken in public about the incident.

The reason for the FBI raid is pretty mysterious. People weren’t even sure how many agents conducted the search, with reports of as few as six or as many as ten FBI agents on the scene.

After a six hour search, the FBI agents ultimately left with several boxes, what may have been a computer hard drive, and even plastic folding table.

In an extended report in The Sacramento Bee, almost no one seemed willing to offer any information about the reason for the raid. Laura Eimiller, a Los Angeles FBI spokeswoman, said both offices were searched as part of the same investigation — duh, I think we could have figured that much out for ourselves — but she wouldn’t give any other details.

Ron Calderon’s celebrity attorney Mark Geragos did make this comment: “They have no case, so what they do is they leak the sealed information in an effort to hassle innocent people, and that’s all the comment I have.”

The Los Angeles Times said it was the first time the FBI had raided the California Senate in 25 years.

[California State Senate chamber photo by David Monniaux via Wikimedia Commons]