When the Recycling King of Oakland David Duong Switched Sides and Donated to the Donald J. Trump Campaign, the Biden-DOJ Targeted Him With a Weak Case and a Fraudster Witness

By Paul Serran with guest contributor Frank Parlato

Oakland, California, is as woke and blue as can be.

In this world, businessman David Duong became the recycling king of the San Francisco Bay Area. As he flourished, he learned to navigate the political realities of California, and became a Democrat Party donor.

That is, until the last election cycle, when Duong had a change of heart and started donating to the Donald J. Trump campaign.

And we are talking meaningful donations, too, amounting to more than $450,000 to PACS supporting Trump.

From within the blue universe he inhabited, he sent out six-figure checks to support Trump in the middle of the Golden State’s ‘woke-a-palooza’.

But if Duong thought that the electoral season would pass and he’d go right back to building recycling trucks, he was sadly mistaken.

He was now in the crosshairs of the California Democrat machine. In the land of pronouns, if you become a high-profile donor to Trump, you’d better hire a defense lawyer.

In California, the transition between what Dem power players want to happen and what Biden-era DOJ officials can make happen is very smooth.

January 17, 2025 – on the last day of the Biden administration, a Biden-appointed US Attorney for the Northern District of California unsealed the indictment against David Duong, the ousted Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and her partner, Andre Jones.

The charges: conspiracy, bribery, attempted bribery, and mail and wire fraud. His arraignment did not keep him from attending the inauguration.

The federal case revolves around an alleged $170,000 bribe paid to former Dem Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who served from 2023 to 2024, before getting removed came through a recall election.

The indictment concedes that Thao never performed any official acts in return for the payment.

It also claims the mayor would extend Duong’s curbside recycling contract beyond 2034; facilitate a $90 million city purchase of modular housing for the homeless; secure a land lease for Duong at the Port Authority and appoint individuals he recommended to positions at City Hall.

In reality, Duong received nothing in return for the alleged bribe, something the indictment concedes, and the public record confirms: Oakland never extended Duong’s recycling contract; no homeless housing deal was executed; the Port Authority lease never materialized and Thao made no Duon-picked appointments.

All that would already be pretty bad, but to top it all, the Biden-DOJ’s case relies on testimony of Mario Roberto Juarez — Coconspirator #1.

Prosecutors allege that in 2022, David Duong, as part of the bribe, provided $75,000 to Juarez to fund campaign mailers supporting Mayor Sheng Thao’s.

But here’s the kicker: Juarez’s checks to the printer bounced.

Why? He withdrew $32,500 the same day he wrote the checks, leaving just $215 in the account. The printer filed a complaint for criminal fraud.

To evade his charges of felony check fraud, Juarez proposed to hand them the new enemy of the Dem establishment.

And his testimony is all prosecutors have. No one else was there: no cameras, no wires, no corroborating witnesses.

Juarez claims there was a bribery plan. His reward? Immunity.

So, the bribe that was never paid – and got nothing in return – became the cornerstone of a federal case.

Most prosecutors know not to build a case on a compromised witness. But if you are chasing an enemy of the California Dems, that’s not so important.

This is designed as a warning: better not donate to the wrong man.  The indictment has all the marks of a Dem hit job. And ultimately Trump, not Duong, is the true target.

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