Sidhu has been charged with, and agreed to plead guilty to, one count of obstruction of justice, one count of wire fraud, and two counts of making false statements to the FBI and the FAA. In a plea agreement also filed today, Sidhu agreed to plead guilty to the four offences.

Is it enough? The facts as set out in the FBI's statement relating to the charges raises serious questions. In fact, all the allegations upon which the charges are based seem to be in support of, or in concealment of, an offence which has not been charged.

According to his plea agreement, Sidhu – a long-time member of the Anaheim City Council who was elected mayor in 2018 – admitted that while the City of Anaheim was negotiating the sale of Angel Stadium to the Los Angeles Angels Major League Baseball club, he sought [to] and became a member of the city’s negotiating team for the stadium sale. While on the negotiating team, Sidhu provided confidential information belonging to the city to people working for the Angels, so that the Angels could buy Angel Stadium on favourable terms for the baseball club. After secretly providing the information he had received in his position as mayor, Sidhu later was recorded saying he expected a USD1 million campaign contribution from the Angels after the baseball club purchased Angel Stadium, the plea agreement states.

This is an admitted position that includes soliciting a benefit in return for abuse of office.

The agreement is damning:

Sidhu admitted that he knowingly destroyed evidence by deleting multiple email messages and documents with the intent to impede and obstruct the FBI’s investigation of public corruption related to the city’s attempted sale of Angel Stadium. In the plea agreement, Sidhu specifically admitted he deleted an email message he had sent on 21 July, 2020, with an attachment drafted by lawyers for the city, which contained confidential negotiation information related to the potential sale of Angel Stadium, including a discussion of issues related to price.

Sidhu also admitted in his plea agreement that he deleted a September 2020 email message about secret mock Anaheim City Council meetings involving Sidhu, two other City Council members and representatives of the Angels – including the team president and a team lawyer. Those mock City Council meetings would precede the scheduled public City Council meeting about the city’s proposed sale of Angel Stadium. The deleted email message had an attachment titled “Angels Council Debate Prep,” which detailed the topics on which each participant of the mock City Council meetings should focus, and it added “[Angels] team available to help develop ‘zingers’, responses, and other points to improve performance.”

Sidhu also admitted he had provided a confidential appraisal range to the Angels in 2019, months before the appraisal was made public.

During the investigation, FBI agents secretly recorded multiple statements by Sidhu about the USD1 million campaign contribution that he expected to receive after the City of Anaheim sold Angel Stadium to the Angels, the plea agreement states.

Sidhu also admitted that he lied about the Angel Stadium sale negotiations and related matters when FBI agents interviewed him on 12 May, 2022. For example, during that interview, Sidhu falsely stated that he was expecting “nothing” from the Angels after the Angel Stadium sale, when in truth, he was expecting to receive a USD1 million campaign contribution for his election after the sale. Sidhu also admitted to lying about using his personal email for city business. “Not only did [Sidhu] conduct City business using his personal email, but he also communicated with some City staff using that staff’s personal email, purposely avoiding using the staff member’s official City email address,” the plea agreement states.

In his plea agreement, Sidhu also admitted that in late 2020, he tried to defraud the State of California of approximately USD16,000 in sales tax revenue by using an Arizona address to register a helicopter he had just purchased, even though he lived in Anaheim. Sidhu admitted that he fraudulently used a mailing address in Scottsdale, Arizona that actually belonged to an Anaheim businessperson.

Sidhu also admitted that he provided false information for the helicopter to the Federal Aviation Administration when he submitted an “Aircraft Registration Application” that he signed and certified as true, but which falsely claimed his permanent mailing address was in Arizona.

Althought Sidhu has agreed to enter a plea of guilty, he has not yet done so. He is expected to appear in court to enter that plea later this month.

The US Department of Justice's Attorney's Office in California says "Once Sidhu enters his guilty pleas, he will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for the obstruction of justice count, up to 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud count, and up to five years in federal prison for each false statements count."

The only outstanding matter it seems is what deal has been done for sentencing on what seems to be one allegation short of a charge sheet.