FBI tried to ensnare Mayor Ed Lee in corruption case, sources say Big gift part of Yee, Chow investigation, lawyers say

The FBI contributed $20,000 to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee 's 2011 mayoral campaign as part of a sting operation.

The FBI contributed $20,000 to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee 's 2011 mayoral campaign as part of a sting operation. Photo: Kevin N. Hume, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Kevin N. Hume, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close FBI tried to ensnare Mayor Ed Lee in corruption case, sources say 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

One big donor to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's mayoral campaign in 2011 turns out to have been the FBI - which apparently had undercover agents working on a Bay Area corruption investigation contribute $20,000 to the mayor, sources tell us.

The donations were part of a sweeping sting operation that included overtures to politicians in San Francisco and Oakland and an undercover meeting with former 49ers-great-turned-developer Joe Montana.

The probe - for which the FBI brought in agents from around the West Coast and beyond - culminated with the indictments in March of Democratic state Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco, Chinatown tong leader Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow and 27 others on charges ranging from accepting bribes to money laundering and gun running.

In many cases, however, the feds came up empty. That appears to have been what happened, not just with Montana but also with Lee.

Prosecutors and the FBI declined to comment on the Lee campaign contributions. But three lawyers representing defendants in the case - including Chow's attorney Tony Serra - said the Lee connection was brought up by a fourth defense attorney, James Brosnahan, after he met with prosecutors and U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who is overseeing the legal proceedings.

The meeting was to decide how much of the investigation would be withheld from the public before the case went to trial.

"It's important that people who are innocently involved are not subjected to undue speculation," Breyer said in open court April 17.

Lawyer meets with judge

Brosnahan, representing former San Francisco school board President Keith Jackson on charges that include conspiring to sell drugs, illegally selling guns and participating in a murder-for-hire plot, was selected to represent defense attorneys in the talks with the judge.

He later confided to his colleagues that both Lee and Montana were among those Breyer and prosecutors were looking to shield from unfair scrutiny.

"The one thing ... Brosnahan said was that Mayor Lee had taken $20,000," said Serra, who has characterized the FBI's sting efforts as a fishing expedition. "The government created the crime, the government financed the crime and the government ensnared my client (Chow)," he said.

Brosnahan declined to comment when asked about the FBI's interest in Lee.

It's unclear what drew the FBI to Lee's campaign, or whether it was trying to ensnare the mayor in an influence-peddling investigation. But at one point, 10 undercover agents did launder $500 checks to the mayoral campaign of his rival, Yee, according to court documents.

Agents went to supervisors

We've been told the FBI also used agents posing as developers to try to enlist help on business deals from San Francisco Supervisors London Breed and Malia Cohen, and Oakland City Council members Larry Reid and Lynette Gibson McElhaney - as well as Montana. None of them has been charged with doing anything wrong.

In a written explanation of his decision to keep much of the case shielded from the public, Breyer said that an "investigation of government corruption conducted by means of wiretap will include speculative discussions about numerous public officials, when those individuals are not parties to the discussions, cannot interject to defend themselves, and never went on to act in a corrupt or criminal manner."

Breyer added: "In the case of public officials, there is also a risk of unfairly undermining their abilities to govern."

Mayoral spokesman Tony Winnicker, who worked on Lee's campaign, said the apparent FBI contributions were news to him - as well as to the mayor.

Raised over $2.1 million

Winnicker said the mayor raised more than $2.1 million for his campaign from 5,886 contributors in 2011 and 2012.

"We have no information or reason to believe Mayor Lee was ever a target of this probe which, at any rate, appears to have been a fairly wide-ranging Bay Area fishing expedition," Winnicker said.

In 2011, the mayor returned $11,500 in campaign contributions from an airport shuttle operator, GO Lorrie's, after it was revealed that the money came from 23 shuttle employees and their family members who were later reimbursed by their boss.

Lee's campaign also returned $4,500 to nine associates of a property management company after it was disclosed that one of its executives had promised to pay them back.

Winnicker said those embarrassments had made Lee's team more vigilant, and that "by the end of the campaign, it would have been very hard to pull the wool over our eyes."

Contributions audited

After the federal indictments in March, he said, the mayor's political team hired a law firm to conduct "a full audit of every contribution" from the 2011 election - checking to see whether any came from people named in an FBI affidavit in the Yee case as having made allegedly illegal donations.

As it turns out, Brosnahan's client, Jackson, was among 17 people who attended a mayoral campaign debt retirement party for Lee after his election, hosted by a member of the city Human Rights Commission.

According to the mayor's office, the event raised $8,375 - but Jackson's $500 check bounced.