Dana Williamson, Newsom’s former Chief of Staff, three others, indicted for corruption

Dana Williamson, Gov. Newsom’s former Chief of Staff, who stepped down in December last year, was indicted by federal officials today, charged with corruption.  Also cited in the indictment were Democratic consultant Greg Campbell, Sean McCluskie, former Chief of Staff to Xavier Becerra, McCluskie’s spouse, and an unnamed former public official, identified by Calmatters as Alexis Podesta, a former secretary at the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency who currently runs her own consulting firm, Podesta Co. Her attorney says she is not charged and is cooperating with investigators.

According to the Sacramento Bee, which broke the story, the four were charged with “conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. There are 23 counts in total; the 18 bank and wire fraud charges each carry a maximum of 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.”

It was revealed today that Campbell and McCluskie pled guilty last week to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and are cooperating with investigators.

The indictment outlines a 2022 scheme to siphon $10,000 a month from a dormant campaign account by falsely representing the payments as due for work done by Williamson and the McCluskies. According to the indictment, the co-conspirators defrauded the account of about $225,000 between 2022 and 2024.

Additionally, federal officials charge that Williamson colluded with Campbell to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by filing false claims to qualify for loan forgiveness.

The indictment quotes from a July 29, 2024 meeting between Williamson and Campbell, outlining a plan to create a fake paper trail to cover her tracks.

Williamson: “I’m still in this like, fucking, my PPP loan got popped bullshit… [can you] do like a retroactive one?”

Campbell: “Just shoot me a text with what you need it to say and I’ll go ta, go see [employee who would be asked to create the documents] right after this.”

Williams’s attorney, former federal prosecutor McGregor Scott, called her arrest an act of “grandstanding” by the U.S. Department of Justice. Scott told POLITICO that the agency had been sitting on the allegations contained in the court filing for up to a year without charging her, and that it had rebuffed multiple attempts on his part to meet with them during that time to discuss the situation. He further claims he had notified the U.S. Attorney’s office a week ago that Williamson has serious health issues and has been placed on a liver transplant list, precluding her from being a flight risk. Even so, he says, she was arrested without being given a chance to surrender herself, an action he called “simply inexplicable.”

Scott noted that the FBI had also asked Williamson to assist with an investigation into Newsom, but she told them she had no knowledge of any wrongdoing on his part.

This is a developing story.