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Feds Investigated Gavin Newsom During the Biden Administration, Dana Williamson’s Lawyer Alleges
Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was arrested and charged with numerous counts of law-breaking, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, falsifying her tax returns (to the tune of stealing $160,201 from taxpayers), and obstruction of justice.
Williamson was employed as Newsom’s chief of staff from January 2023 until November 2024, at which point she stepped down upon notifying the administration that she faced a federal investigation.
The charges are quite serious: It is alleged that Williamson directed $225,000 from a campaign fund belonging to Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general and former U.S. secretary of health and human services, to her friend Sean McCluskie by way of payments to McCluskie’s stay-at-home wife. The payments were made under the pretense that his wife was performing political consulting work.
Here’s where that gets especially problematic: At the time, McCluskie was a high-ranking federal official, as he was serving as chief of staff to Becerra, who was then the U.S. secretary of health and human services. That means McCluskie — and, by extension, Becerra — are tainted by what could have been a bribe paid out to McCluskie every single month. Many of these payments were delivered when Williamson was employed as Newsom’s chief of staff. (Upon becoming Newsom’s chief of staff, Williamson brought someone else into the conspiracy to conceal the payments for her, but she remained active in directing the scheme and covering it up, according to the indictment.)
There are plenty of ways in which the $225,000 could have influenced McCluskie to treat the Newsom administration preferentially.
There are plenty of ways in which the $225,000 could have influenced McCluskie to treat the Newsom administration preferentially. For example, HHS has control over health grant programs as well as the dispersal of Medicaid waivers.
In fact, HHS under the Biden administration was highly accommodating of the Newsom administration’s desire to use Medicaid to pay for what could generously be called “nontraditional health care services.” California used waivers received under the Biden administration to direct Medicaid funds toward housing and food for those experiencing poverty. The Trump administration appears to be less accommodating of such permissions.
Whether McCluskie made any decisions in Newsom’s favor as a result of getting hundreds of thousands of dollars via his chief of staff is less clear. The indictment does not chronicle any favors McCluskie performed in exchange for the payments he was allegedly given by Williamson and her co-conspirators. One would think, however, that the woman risking her freedom to pay him believed she was getting something out of it.
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This is where things get very interesting.
Williamson’s lawyer, McGregor Scott, says that Williamson was approached last year by federal authorities and asked if she could “help in some sort of investigation they were conducting of the governor,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
That is a serious claim. If true, it suggests that the FBI and Department of Justice were conducting a probe of Gavin Newsom and that they approached Williamson to seek her cooperation — possibly in exchange for lesser charges.
Williamson’s lawyer (who was formerly the U.S. attorney in Sacramento) is not the only one alleging that there was a federal probe into Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that it has an anonymous source “with knowledge of the case” and who is “not authorized to speak publicly” who has likewise confirmed that federal investigators “tried to pressure Williamson into implicating Newsom.”
Of course, Williamson has found herself to be in quite the adverse situation, so she has every incentive to try to spread the blame around. But if it is true that the FBI and DOJ were investigating Newsom, that is quite the bombshell.
That is most especially the case because all of this took place under the Biden administration. Williamson was made aware of the federal investigation in 2024, the last year of Biden’s presidency. Suddenly, Newsom’s constant efforts to cozy up to Biden — even when it looked politically suicidal, considering the president’s lack of popularity — look a whole lot different. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Breaks With Biden to Set Up Presidential Run)
Notably, however, Williamson’s lawyer says that his client told federal investigators that she had no dirt on Newsom to share with them. “She told them she had no information to provide them, and then we wind up today with these charges,” he told the Los Angeles Times. His implication: Williamson is being punished for not giving the feds (under the Biden administration) the goods they wanted on Newsom.
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Even if the alleged federal probe of Newsom goes no further, Williamson’s corruption charges do much to cast a shadow over her former boss.
This is especially true because of Newsom’s long record of being chummy with lobbyists. His famous COVID dinner at the French Laundry, for instance, had several political lobbyists as guests. It was only after that dinner that Newsom, under immense public pressure, banned his campaign and political consultants from lobbying him or his staff on behalf of clients.
Newsom has also been connected to donations that look suspiciously like they were made in exchange for favors.
There were the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to Newsom’s wife’s charity by businesses that were lobbying the Newsom administration. And there was also the $226 million that was donated at Newsom’s behest in 2020, some of which came from companies that went on to receive favorable treatment from the California government. For example, the Los Angeles Times reported that after Google gave $7 million at Newsom’s request, its parent company ultimately received tens of millions in dollars in COVID testing contracts.
That’s not to mention the fact that Newsom, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, received copious gifts from oil heir Gordon Getty and failed to report them. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Claims Working-Class Background, Teases Presidential Run)
But beyond Newsom’s own actions, simply the presence of Dana Williamson as his chief of staff throws suspicion onto how his administration conducted itself during that roughly two-year period. If even some of the allegations in the indictment are true, after all, Williamson is a person who is brazen in her law-breaking. Writing off a $156,302 birthday trip to Mexico, $12,437 for Chanel earrings plus a shopping bag, and $7,712 for a Gucci bag and wallet as business expenses comes across as the actions of a woman with no regard for the law. It seems hard to believe that all of her conduct in the governor’s office was above board.
Moreover, her decision to allegedly create false documents to cover up an investigation into whether her company fraudulently received PPP loans suggests that she is so arrogant in her belief that she is above the law that she will lie and cheat without blinking in order to avoid responsibility.
And this is the woman who was Newsom’s top adviser. Her behavior certainly raises the question of what other improprieties she engaged in while she held that position.
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Newsom should be sweating, because none of this looks good for him as he prepares to launch his presidential bid.
In a statement from his spokesman, he appears to be directing the public toward the idea that this case could stem from the fact that President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to prosecute his political enemies. “At a time when the President is openly calling for his Attorney General to investigate his political enemies,” the statement said, “it is especially important to honor the American principle of being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law by a jury of one’s peers.”
The problem with that theory is that this investigation was conducted for several years during the Biden administration. But if any potential federal probe of Newsom goes any further, Newsom will certainly have that excuse to turn to.
In statements to the media, a spokesman for Newsom, Izzy Gardon, said that his office was not aware of a federal investigation involving Newsom.
Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.
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