Gavin Newsom stood at a podium and swore the federal probe targeting him was Donald Trump’s doing.
He had no idea what federal investigators were already holding.
And one name just surfaced that turns his entire defense to ash.
FBI Corruption Probe Had a Mole Inside Newsom’s Own Payroll
Alexis Podesta is a 45-year-old Sacramento power broker who worked for Dianne Feinstein, ran senior roles in Jerry Brown’s administration, and walked away with a Newsom board appointment in January 2020 – a seat that still pays her nearly $61,000 a year in taxpayer money.
She has also, according to Williamson’s attorney McGregor Scott, been wearing a wire for the FBI since at least June 2024.
“Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not,” said Scott, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California – the same office now investigating Newsom and his wife.
Dana Williamson was Newsom’s chief of staff until late 2024.
In May, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, filing a false tax return, and lying to federal agents.
The scheme federal prosecutors outlined was brazen: Williamson and others siphoned roughly $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to former Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra – Newsom’s subordinate, and now the Democratic frontrunner to succeed him as governor.
The money was disguised as consulting fees and routed to benefit Becerra’s former chief of staff, Sean McCluskie.
Podesta’s attorney says she inherited oversight of the Becerra account when Williamson moved into the governor’s office and claims Podesta didn’t know the payments were improper.
Campaign finance records tell a different story: Becerra’s committee was cutting Podesta Company $10,000 checks nearly every month through 2023 and 2024.
Dana Williamson Guilty Plea Opened a Door Podesta Was Already Walking Through
After Williamson’s arrest last fall, something strange happened across Sacramento.
Sacramento was suddenly full of people who had no idea why the FBI was interested in their phone calls.
Republican Assemblyman Josh Hoover of Folsom was among them.
“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,” Hoover told the New York Post.
“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.”
One Capitol insider who got the letter told a source he couldn’t understand it – he had never once spoken to Dana Williamson.
Now there’s an answer to that mystery.
Podesta was recording conversations across Newsom’s political orbit – and whoever she was talking to was getting swept into the net.
The court record already captured one of those conversations: a June 2024 wiretap in which Williamson and Podesta – the sitting chief of staff and the FBI’s cooperating witness – strategized about how to handle a Public Records Act request tied to California’s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, a former Williamson client.
Williamson allegedly passed Podesta inside information about the state’s legal strategy against a former client.
Podesta is listed as Co-Conspirator 2 in the federal indictment – but was never charged.
The reason is now obvious.
Newsom DOJ Investigation Started Under Biden Not Trump
Newsom’s fundraising email from June now looks like the worst possible miscalculation.
He stood up and told supporters: “Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets. He’s coming after me because I’m considering running for president.”
Podesta started recording in June 2024.
Joe Biden was still president.
The investigation Newsom is calling a Trump vendetta was already producing wiretap transcripts before Trump ever set foot back in the White House.
The Eastern District of California – the same office that charged Williamson – is now investigating Newsom and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, whose nonprofit has been hemorrhaging money while soliciting millions in “behested payments” from interests doing business with the state.
Williamson’s sentencing is scheduled before Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley on July 9.
While the country celebrates its 250th birthday, a federal judge will be deciding what happens to the woman who ran Gavin Newsom’s office.
Newsom’s office declined to comment on why Podesta – his appointee, his party’s insider, and now the FBI’s cooperating witness – is still collecting $61,000 a year from California taxpayers.
Calling it a personnel matter won’t hold up much longer.
Sources:
- Josh Koehn, “FBI infiltrated Gavin Newsom’s inner circle by convincing governor’s ally to wear a wire: lawyer,” New York Post, July 2, 2026.
- Jennifer Van Laar, “Whoa: A Sacramento Insider Wore a Wire in Dana Williamson/Gavin Newsom Probe,” RedState, July 2, 2026.
- “Gavin Newsom Insider Wore Wire for FBI Before Feds Expanded Corruption Probe into Governor and Wife,” Slay News, July 3, 2026.
- “Gavin Newsom Ally Wore FBI Wire in Corruption Probe Targeting Former Chief of Staff,” California Globe, July 3, 2026.
- “Longtime Dem Insider Was FBI Mole Within Newsom’s Inner Circle Amid Federal Investigation,” BizPac Review, July 3, 2026.