teacher: ...but it's still true. there are four states of matter. there are solids, liquids, gases... teacher: trevor? teacher: nui? plasma. teacher: lights please. teacher: now, states of matter are comprised of relationships between molecules. teacher: molecules' relationships... nicotine's a neurotoxin that can escalate teen anxiety. teacher: saved by the bell! ♪ (ominous music) ♪ today on getting answers. we're talking about first amendment rights or illegal trespassing. stanford is ready to get tough on protesters who broke into the president's office, including

student journalists. plus, chat bots impacting the workforce. the tech layoffs now sparked by the efficiency of openai's chatgpt. but first, where is the mayor of oakland and what is her involvement with yesterday's fbi raid at her home? you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us today. the mayor's lawyer told abc7 news that shantel is not the focus of the investigation. that included federal agents raiding her home. >> we don't have any information that indicates that mayor tao is the target of the investigation. >> so that suggests that it could be people who live with her, maybe a boyfriend or somebody else. >> it suggests that the information that they wanted, whether that information itself suggests criminality or is simply something that corroborates other information, was located there or on a device. >> her lawyer went on to say that tao is cooperating with the authorities, and she would have cooperated if they just reached

out to her. instead of showing up and raiding her home. so if she's not directly targeted in this investigation, why doesn't she say so? and where is she? joining us now to talk about this latest turn of events and new developments in thisl stor.s insider phil matier. so phil, it's been, what, more than 36 hours now since the raids and who's seen the mayor who's talked to the mayor herself, not just through her lawyer. >> i haven't found anyone, including city council members who have spoken directly or gotten any calls from her. no. >> is that unusual? >> yes it is, but this is a highly unusual situation. we haven't seen something like this before where an elected official, a mayor, a leader, an executive in a major city has been had their homes searched by the fbi. and the question is, you know, practically speaking, is, is this a city matter or is this a personal matter? right now, she appears to be handling it as if it was a personal matter. when i called her people this morning and saihat's the statement coming out today? they referred me to her lawyer. now, maybe that's because they

don't want to get the city involved in this, because this is actually something going on in her home, in her life. the other issue is thathe herself, politically speaking, you would have thought that they would have possibly issued a statem now saying to the effect that i am cooperating, i had no idea about what this is, but this is still a moving situation. and i want to expand a little bit on what tony brass, her very capable lawyer, just said. he said she is not the target of the investigation. they've been indicating now. now she is not the target as of now. that could change depending on what they find and how this transpires. so what he's saying is that she's not the target of the investigation, but possibly other people living at the house. who else is living at the house? her children and her longtime boyfriend? >> probably not the children and father of the children. >> one of the children, uh- andre jones, who is andre jones? he is a oakland political activist, a san francisco been involved in san francisco and

oakland politics for decades. he is a former staff member of state of city councilwoman rebecca kaplan. as a matter of fact, that's where he met sheng tao. they were both working in the office together. and so the question is, okay, is he the target? who's the target? we don't know. what we do know is that there is involvement here of a number of different people, and it circles around the mayor and the company that has the exclusive monopy on curbside gn oakland, which is a very lucrative business. >> right. and of course, like you sainitial target may not be the eventual target. once you open up that can of worms, you don't know what else you will discover in there, right? okay but in terms of the cao waste solutions, the exclusive recycler, let's talk about that, because there's got to be other politicians getting a little uncomfortableight now because that family, the duong's they po their photos with lots of prominent people. >> oh, up and down fromwashingt. >> i saw gover newsom, the

attorney general, rob bonta. >> exactly. you know, how do you get those pictures taken, you contribute to an event, and then you are photographed with people and there is a whole group in around the country, and they're big donors. they are lucrative people, and they give money on a national scale. they give to the pacific heights fundraisers for joe biden on a local scale. they give to local politicians. and if you have a contract that's where questions start rising. because if you're doing business with somebody that you and you give them political contributions, that's something else. are other politicians a little bit nervous ? yes. any time one of your supporters or backers with the photograph is implicated in something? yes. you get nervous by association, if nothing else. >> right. so let me ask you, when do we cross the line into the illegal realm? when it comes to this? hey, i show up at your fundraisers and i happen to get,

you know, maybe i did put out the best contract bid and i got this contract. i mean, when do we cross into the line where the irs, the fbi and the usps show giving political contributions, and then that's fine, right? i mean, there are ways to do it. >> you report it, and if you follow the law and it's legal and there's no local restrictions on whether you can give or not, that's one thing where you get in trouble, let's say, with the federal authorities, is when you give. personally, i don't give to a political campaign. i give to a person i and that's where it if it's you stand to gain benefit from it personally and it doesn't have to be money. >> it could be a trip. it could be, you know, dinner, gifts, anything like that. yes okay. well, remains to be seen. but in the meantime, any mayor personal business is sort of, you know, city business, if you will, because she's supposed to be working. i mean, maybe she is in private hiding somewhere, but who's running the city? because people might want to know if she's not showing up at, you know, city hall. like, what about the day to day? >> well, oakland has a city

administrator. okay, okay. and so the day to day operations is up to him. and they've issued a statement saying the fact that we have a city administrator who is handling the day to day, it is not a rudderless ship. okay, okay. the mayor is sort of like the chart how the navigator. we want to go here. we want to go there. i see they have a budget that they have to pass within the next couple of weeks. i spoke with a member of the city council, kevin jenkins. he says they are going to pass it. they're going to make it on time. they're going to continue to proceed. all right. so that is in the short term where it goes in the long term remains to be seen. at this point, she has no intention of resigning. okay. >> so that's the second thing i was just going to say, because at the same time, the recall against her has qualified for the ballot. but i've certainly seen people who are behind that effort. the organizers say, chantal, why don't you save us a little time and simply resign now, right. >> because you're innocent until proven guilty and because she's an elected official and she doesn't want to step down, and she she'll let the voters have their say. everybody's going to