Leland Yee was a Democratic California state senator from San Francisco when he was arrested in March 2014 on wide-ranging corruption charges, including arranging the sale of machine guns and shoulder-fired missiles to undercover FBI officers. The anti-gun former politician has now reportedly agreed to plead guilty to one charge of racketeering.
Yee’s hypocrisy and corruption are breathtaking. On one hand, the gun-ban lobby named him to its “Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll” because he so persistently pushed laws to disarm law-abiding people. Yet at the same time, according to the FBI’s 137-page criminal complaint, Yee was involved in a criminal conspiracy engaged in everything from gun trafficking and drug distribution to money laundering and murder-for-hire.
For the single federal charge of racketeering, Yee could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.