Taking the witness stand on Thursday, Santa Clara Councilmember Suds Jain testified that he “assumed” Vice Mayor Anthony Becker gave the electric “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” report to a journalist before it was public — a slight deviation from testimony he gave to the criminal grand jury that indicted Becker last year.
Jain said that Becker — one of his allies on the Santa Clara City Council since 2020 — had called him about two or three weeks before he was expected to testify in front of a criminal grand jury on March 29, 2023. During the phone call, Jain said that Becker admitted he had given the Santa Clara County civil grand jury report to Carolyn Schuk, an editor at the Silicon Valley Voice.
Becker is currently on trial in Santa Clara County Superior Court in Morgan Hill for allegedly leaking the 2022 report — which chastised five members of the Santa Clara City Council for their relationship with San Francisco 49ers lobbyists — as well as felony perjury for allegedly lying about the leak under oath.
The controversial report was supposed to be released publicly on Oct. 10, 2022, but appeared in several media outlets a few days prior. Rahul Chandhok, the 49ers’ former chief of communications, testified last week that Becker leaked him the report.
During Jain’s March 29 testimony to the criminal grand jury, Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky asked the councilmember if Becker told him that he sent the report to a journalist “before it was public.” Jain confirmed that Becker had.
But back in court on Thursday, Jain said he didn’t recall his prior testimony.
Santa Clara councilmember Suds Jain waits outside the courtroom to testify in Santa Clara Vice Mayor Anthony Becker’s trial at the Santa Clara County Superior Court in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
“He told me that he had given the report to Carolyn Shuk,” Jain said. “I assumed it was during that period.”
At one point, Malinsky showed Jain his prior testimony, to which he responded that he believed he was “confused.”
The recently re-elected councilmember said that he wished Becker hadn’t told him. At the time, the two were discussing “how much stress he was under.”
“I knew I had a subpoena, and it would have been better if he hadn’t told me,” he said. “It put me in a difficult position.”
Jain testified that he didn’t ask his colleague any follow-up questions because he “did not want to know anymore.”
When asked by a juror why Becker would have to give a journalist the report if it was already publicly available on the county’s website, Jain said “it’s possible that a reporter didn’t know where to find it. I don’t know.”
Following Jain’s testimony, the prosecution played an audio recording of their interview with Becker on Dec. 28, 2022.
Fernando Ramirez Jr., a criminalist with the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory, testified as an expert witness the day prior that a forensic analysis of Becker’s phone showed that he had uninstalled Signal — the encrypted messaging app he allegedly used to leak the report — on Dec. 28 at 9:09 a.m.
Becker’s meeting with Malinsky and Ben Holt, a criminal investigator with the DA’s office, commenced at 9:17 a.m. — less than nine minutes after data showed he deleted the app.
In a snippet of the interview that was played for the jury, Becker said he hadn’t communicated with anyone from the 49ers “for a while.” He told Malinsky and Holt that he only used his phone’s native texting app to communicate with Chandhok, his main contact at the 49ers.
Becker said he didn’t use Signal. But when asked by Malinsky if he used it in the past, he questioned why he was being asked so much about Chandhok.
“Do I need a lawyer, because this is starting to get really inquisitive about my relationship with the 49ers?” Becker said.
The vice mayor eventually admitted to having used the app in the past with one of his campaign staffers. When Malinsky asked Becker if he had used it to communicate with Chandhok, he said he didn’t know.
“I don’t know why this is so important if we had conversations on Signal,” he said.
Becker also denied leaking the grand jury report during the interview, and said he deleted Signal off of his phone “some time after the election.”
The DA’s office served Becker with a search warrant following the interview.