Bonta spent nearly half a million on lawyers. His advisor explains

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta spent nearly half a million dollars in campaign funds last year on private lawyers to represent him as he spoke to federal investigators about alleged corruption in Oakland.

Bonta paid the law firm about $468,000 from his 2026 re-election campaign last year, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the state.

Bonta’s political consultant Dan Newman said the attorney general was contacted by federal investigators because he was viewed as a “potential victim” in the alleged corruption case involving the former Oakland mayor and Bay Area business owners.

“The only role was to help provide information that would be useful to the investigation,” Newman said.

“It’s all done in 2024, a year early, and the AG’s involvement is over,” Newman said.

Bonta’s payments to the legal team were first reported by Sacramento’s KCRA-TV.

The United States Department of Justice in January indicted former Oakland Mayor Sheng Tao in a bribery scheme involving local businessmen David Truong Dong and Andy Hong Dong.

Tao ran for mayor of Oakland in 2022 and was forced out of office in 2024 due to voter dissatisfaction over crime and the city’s budget problems. She was arrested by the FBI in early 2025.

According to the indictment, Thao, then a mayoral candidate, was involved in a Code Pro scheme with the Dong brothers in which she promised to help their recycling and modular home businesses as mayor.

The Dong brothers and Tao have pleaded not guilty.

The San Jose Mercury News reported in January 2025 that campaign finance regulators were also closely investigating Andy Dong. According to the newspaper, the Dong family sees Bunta as a political ally.

In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Bonta, then an assemblyman representing the Oakland area, to serve as attorney general for the remainder of Xavier Becerra’s term, who President Biden nominated to become U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Bonta has emerged as a key player in California’s fight against President Trump, filing dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Bonta eventually returned $155,000 in campaign contributions from the Dong family after the federal investigation came to light, according to multiple news reports.

Newman, counsel for Bonta, said the attorney general ultimately found there was no victim in the case. When asked why so much money was spent on lawyers, he said that many lawyers have worked in a few months.

A representative of the US Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Newman’s allegations.