LOS ANGELES — The mayor of Anaheim, California, is resigning amid a reported federal investigation related to his actions surrounding a plan to sell the Los Angeles Angels stadium site, the city said Monday.
Mayor Harry Sidhu resigned effective Tuesday, he said in a letter to the city. The move comes days after Anaheim said it learned of the inquiry.
Sidhu’s attorney denied any wrongdoing and said the mayor will be vindicated.
“A fair and thorough investigation will prove that Mayor Harry Sidhu did not leak secret information in hopes of a later campaign contribution,” Sidhu’s attorney, Paul Meyer, said in a letter published by the city.
An FBI affidavit included in a court filing by the state attorney general’s office says that Sidhu may have provided non-public information to representatives for the Angels during negotiations of the sale.
Sidhu has not been charged with any crime. The FBI affidavit is in support of search warrants.
Anaheim said that it learned of the affidavit on May 16. An agreement between the city and the state about the sale, which deals with affordable housing, is now on hold.
The California attorney general’s office said in court documents filed in state court that the federal warrant and affidavit contain serious allegations that call into question the validity of the land sale and the agreement.
Anaheim has been negotiating the sale of the stadium property since 2019, when the Angels said they wanted to buy the land around the stadium rather than lease it.
The FBI affidavit says that Sidhu appears on two occasions to have provided information to the Angels so they could use it in negotiations.
Sidhu later discussed plans to ask for $500,000 in campaign contributions from a representative of the Angels organization who is not named in the affidavit, and later said he planned to increase that to $1 million, according to the affidavit.
Sidhu allegedly made those comments to a person who is who is cooperating with investigators, according to the document. The FBI agent wrote that he is unaware if the Angels representative was ever asked or was aware of the intention to ask for the money.
Anaheim’s city government characterized the matter as dealing with independent actions Sidhu may have taken regarding the sale proposal.
Meyer, Sidhu’s attorney, wrote in the letter accompanying the resignation that the stadium deal negotiations followed accepted lawful practices.
“The government affidavit confirms that Harry never asked for a political campaign contribution that was linked in any way to the negotiation process,” Meyer wrote.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
