SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

In an exclusive TV interview with California Politics 360 , Attorney General Rob Bonta explained why he quietly paid a private law firm nearly half a million dollars during a federal bribery investigation.

KCRA 3 last week was the first to report the payments . Bonta confirmed he was a witness in his capacity as a political candidate in the investigation. He said he hired the attorneys as federal investigators asked him questions and requested information, documents and other materials from him.

That federal investigation resulted in the indictment of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and some of Bonta's political donors known as the Duong family.

"They thought I was potentially a victim," Bonta said. "That was one of the first reasons that the federal government

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