SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge sentenced former California state senator Leland Yee on Wednesday to five years in prison after he acknowledged in a plea deal that he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes and discussed helping an undercover FBI agent buy automatic weapons from the Philippines.
Senior District Court Judge Charles Breyer called the weapons allegations against Yee — a gun control advocate — unfathomable and said it was frightening that Yee would be willing to go entirely against his public position on guns in exchange for money.
“I don’t feel I should be lenient,” Breyer said during the hearing. “The crimes that you committed have resulted in essentially an attack on democratic institutions.”
Still, Breyer’s sentence fell on the low end of guidelines that called for a prison term of between four years nine months and six years.