Last week the Federal Bureau of Investigations conducted raids on the city council offices of Michael Zucchet, Ralph Inzunza and Charles Lewis while simultaneously raiding Cheetahs, a local strip club, and other clubs owned by the same man, Michael Galardi, located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The raids are a part of a very quiet federal grand jury investigation.

Toni Atkins, the council representative for district three, was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury to face questions presumably related to the raids on Friday, May 16.

“She was given the grand jury subpoena, as you know, and we contacted the federal government,” Atkins’ attorney, Ezekiel Cortez, told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “The first thing we wanted to do was we wanted to find out if the grand jury subpoena was necessary, and the grand jury subpoena was not necessary.”

He added, “I believe the government was looking for and still is looking for information that they just don’t have, and Toni doesn’t have it.”

Speaking with the Times, Atkins said that she plans to cooperate fully with the federal grand jury but added, “It is our opinion that we have done nothing wrong.”

After she was subpoenaed it was widely reported by the press that Atkins had returned donations made to her campaign by Gulardi and his associates. Atkins admits that she did return some donations because they were money orders, which are not acceptable forms of donations.

“At this time I don’t remember. We returned them, and because we did not deposit them it wouldn’t go onto a political campaign statement that we had to file,” Atkins said when asked who the returned donations were from.

“To my knowledge I have received no contributions from Galardi or Malone, which are the two people’s names I continue to see in the newspaper,” Atkins went on to say. “The press has indicated that I have received money from their associates. I haven’t determined that as of yet and no one has told me that I have absolutely received contributions from any of his associates.”

With the press putting a spotlight on the investigation it is far from business as usual at the city council meetings.

“It’s absolutely distracting,” Atkins said. “But I know my focus has to be to get some of these things done — particularly the inclusionary housing, which I have been pushing to get here for months now.”

Prior to the council’s meeting on Monday, May 19, the first since the office raids, both Inzunza and Zucchet made public statements.

“I do not know what this investigation is all about, but I can tell you confidently that I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” Inzunza said at a press conference outside city hall.

At the beginning of the council meeting Zucchet requested a moment to make his statement.

“I answered all questions that investigators had for me last week,” he said. “In addition, at the time I responded to questions from the media in an effort to provide whatever information I could. I will continue to cooperate with the government’s investigation and I believe that I have done nothing wrong.”

Zucchet went on to say that he was advised that it is inappropriate for him or his staff to make public comment or to respond to questions from the media about the ongoing investigation, and that he will no longer be making any more public comments or responding to media questions.

“I don’t think it’s a good thing that we’re having to deal with this right now,” Atkins said. “Certainly we have weathered storms like this before. Valerie Stallings resigned and we certainly pulled together as a council and made sure district six was represented.”

If the grand jury investigation leads to indictments it is possible that all three of the councilmembers being investigated could be forced to resign their posts, and their absence could have a dramatic affect on issues important to the gay community.

“Not knowing who or how many people might be affected, it’s hard to say,” Atkins said about the ramifications of the three resigning. “We know that this council has been pretty supportive of issues related to the gay community and I think it’s really impossible to kind of speculate at this point.”