# Leland Yee arrested for corruption, arms dealing

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [March 27, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710 "2014-03-27T18:42:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/1 "2014-03-27T18:42:25Z")

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If you like a nice cup of irony with your schadenfreude pie, here’s a [story](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-state-senator-leland-yee-arrested-in-federal-raid/) for you:

Leland Yee, the California legislator behind the anti-violent video game law that was eventually struck down in _Brown vs. EMA_\*, has been arrested on charges of bribery and conspiracy to traffic firearms. Yee is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for official actions and of attempting to broker a deal between an arms-trafficking acquaintance and a businessman who happened to be an undercover FBI agent.

The FBI affidavit has been unsealed and is now [available](http://cbssanfran.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/complaint_affidavit_14-70421-nc.pdf). (PDF warning–it’s a PDF of a scanned 137-page document.) The weapons-deal part seems to start on page 82, but there’s plenty of other juicy bits–it’s rife with drug deals, money laundering, gang connections, and conspiracy.

So, how is Mr. Yee going to blame all this on video games?

\*If you’re still anemic, he has also been a gun control proponent, but this is the Game Room, and that discussion would be better held elsewhere.

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### Author: ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/2 "2014-03-27T19:43:23Z")

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Guy played a lot of GTA, obviously.

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### Author: ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/3 "2014-03-27T19:58:17Z")

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Yep, violent video games bad, selling weapons to murderous terrorists good.

Now, if only the sentence could be death by firing squad.

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### Author: ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/4 "2014-03-27T19:59:24Z")

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To be fair, I have the impression that he was willing to traffic in just about any kind of illegal contraband; the fact that this was about guns is just coincidental. 🆒

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### Author: ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/5 "2014-03-27T20:08:26Z")

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Not surprisingly, Mr. Yee was an enthusiastic supporter of gun control.

Just not for his clients.

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### Author: ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/6 "2014-03-27T21:38:18Z")

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> [@Grumman](#):
>
> Yep, violent video games bad, selling weapons to murderous terrorists good.

My mistake - the arms deal was to _finance_ terrorists, not arm them.

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### Author: ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/7 "2014-03-27T22:24:33Z")

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> [@astorian](#):
>
> Not surprisingly, Mr. Yee was an enthusiastic supporter of gun control.
> 
> Just not for his clients.

Oh, no, not at all.

He wanted to control who the guns went to, to make sure he got his cut of the transaction. :rolleyes:

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### Author: ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/8 "2014-03-27T23:20:45Z")

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He is a Democrat, yet he talks and acts like a Republican.

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### Author: ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/9 "2014-03-27T23:24:07Z")

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> [@Ike\_Witt](#):
>
> He is a Democrat, yet he talks and acts like a Republican.

Yeah, those Republicans sure like microstamping and banning weapons that resemble assault rifles. :rolleyes:

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### Author: ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/10 "2014-03-28T00:20:08Z")

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The third California Democratic State Senator to be arrested since the beginning of the year. The President pro tem of the Senate is grinding his teeth and trying to force them to resign their seats to they can get more Democrats into the Senate, which right now no longer has a filibuster-proof Democratic majority.

I’m upset about this, Yee is a major name in California politics, he ran for Mayor of San Francisco and was planning on a run for State Secretary of State this year. The corruption charges have to do with his fundraising for campaigns.

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### Author: ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2014, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leland-yee-arrested-for-corruption-arms-dealing/684710/11 "2014-04-07T07:49:01Z")

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I thought that was the most hilarious part of the story. Democrats finally get their 2/3rds majority but can’t keep it because their officeholders keep getting arrested.
