A Sacramento Insider Wore a Wire in Dana | Political News
Back in November 2025, when we realized that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of workers, Dana Williamson, had been indicted on dozens of felony corruption expenses, one factor that stood out to me was that one lady at the middle of the scheme “to divert approximately $225,000 in funds” from then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s dormant marketing campaign account wasn’t charged with a crime. Named as co-conspirator 2 in the indictment, Alexis Podesta had taken over Williamson’s guide of business, including the Becerra account, when Williamson went to work for Newsom.
Now we all know the potential cause why: according to Williamson’s attorney, MacGregor Scott, Podesta was carrying a wire as far back as June, 2024. Scott said, “Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not.”
That would also clarify why there was a detailed transcript of a June 2024 dialog between Podesta and Williamson associated to a lawsuit the state introduced against Williamson’s former shopper, Activision. Williamson is charged with making false statements to investigators based on that dialog, in which she fed Podesta info about the state’s strikes. She also orchestrated a settlement and had the state’s Chief Counsel fired after counsel objected to the governor’s interference.
Then in 2024 a PRA (FOIA) request was filed requesting communications btwn Williamson, a lobbyist, Activision, and co-defendant Campbell.
Williamson’s dialog w/Podesta about this is partially transcribed below, and actually says EVERYTHING about how govt views FOIA requests pic.twitter.com/ewOut4U3zi
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) November 13, 2025
Alexis Podesta and Dana Williamson labored together at PG&E (yes, that PG&E) from 2009-11 when Williamson was Director of Public Affairs and Podesta was Special Assistant to one of Williamson’s bff’s, Nancy McFadden, and all 3 of them joined Jerry Brown’s administration in January… pic.twitter.com/cSXeSoUhPF
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) November 13, 2025
Williamson then denied to federal investigators that she ever shared that sort of info with people exterior the administration.
Podesta, who beforehand labored for Dianne Feinstein and held senior positions in former Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration was appointed to the State Compensation Insurance Fund board by Newsom in 2020, which pays $61,000/yr. She also beforehand labored for Disney and PG&E.
At the time of Williamson’s arrest, quite a few Sacramento lobbyists and even officeholders obtained letters from the FBI letting them know that some of their communications might need been intercepted as half of the probe.
“Some of the communications intercepted during the course of the investigation were from a phone number believed to be associated with you,” the letter stated, continuing, “This letter does not necessarily mean you were the target of the investigation or that any criminal action will be taken against you. Rather, the purpose of the letter is to notify you that some of your communications may have been intercepted during the course of the investigation.”
Some of those who obtained the letters hadn’t spoken to Williamson or Podesta, including Republican Asm. Josh Hoover, who told the California Post:
“A lot of people received letters essentially informing us that there were certain periods of time where the FBI was given access to follow phone calls. I don’t know how these investigations work, but it sounds like they cast a pretty broad net across the Capitol community to see what they could find.”
If that’s the case, they are going to be busy for a very, very long time. And it will not be a enjoyable Independence Day weekend for most in Sacramento, to put it mildly.
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