Overview
- Newly released text messages, obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, show the governor’s office asked Oakland officials in 2024 to resolve a small RV encampment outside Marshawn Lynch’s family home.
- City leaders discussed sending animal control and using an emergency closure, a tool that skips the usual 72‑hour notice when officials cite a safety risk, according to the texts.
- Oakland says it did not carry out a clearance in June 2024 and that by August the residents had moved their vehicles to nearby state‑controlled Caltrans lots.
- The messages came from a trove subpoenaed in the FBI corruption probe into recalled Mayor Sheng Thao, and they also exposed crude exchanges by top administrators that led City Administrator Jestin Johnson to resign.
- Newsom’s office said it routinely raised encampment concerns with Oakland, while right‑leaning outlets framed the outreach as favoritism toward a celebrity friend.