Senator Leland Yee has been a member of California's State Senate since 2006 (Wikimedia Commons)

Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco has been charged with conspiracy to traffic in firearms without a license and accepting campaign funds in exchange for political favors, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The other two senators, Ronald Calderon of Montebello and Roderick Wright of Inglewood, took voluntary leaves of absences. Calderon was charged with accepting bribes and Wright was indicted for voter fraud and perjury. The 40 member state senate voted 28-1 to bring about the suspensions. The sole member to vote against the measure, Republican Senator Joel Anderson, wanted them expelled instead. Yee was caught by an undercover FBI agent while introducing him to an arms trafficker as he wanted to help the agent obtain weapons from a Muslim separatist group in the Philippines, according to Yahoo! News.

READ MORE: State Senator Leland Yee Arrested

Despite their suspensions, Yee, Calderon and Wright will still be paid their annual salary of $95,291, as California’s constitution does not allow the Senate to withhold pay from a suspended lawmaker; they must either resign or be expelled, according to NBC Los Angeles.

This is not the first time that an incident like this occurred. In 1985, the “Shrimpscam” sting investigation was conducted by the FBI, where undercover agents posed as employees of a fake shrimp-processing company. It ended up with five politicians resigning and being imprisoned for accepting bribes, according to Yahoo! News.

Yee was an ardent supporter of gun control and opposed targeting violent video games to minors. U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer joined a list of politicians yesterday in disassociating from Yee by demanding his resignation, according to NBC Los Angeles.

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