Federal prosecutors slapped Dana Williamson, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, with public corruption charges Wednesday, according to a federal indictment.
Williamson, who exited the governor’s office in December 2024, is accused alongside political insiders Greg Campbell and Sean McCluskie of conspiring to commit wire and bank fraud. The feds say the crew faces 23 counts in total — 18 of which each carry a possible 20-year prison term and up to $250,000 in fines.
She’s expected to appear in federal court in Sacramento on Wednesday afternoon. Williamson did not respond to a request for comment. McCluskie and Campbell couldn’t be reached, and it wasn’t clear whether any had secured legal counsel.
Prosecutors allege Williamson kept her fingerprints on the scheme even after joining Newsom’s administration — transferring control to another co-conspirator but staying involved behind the scenes.
Newsom’s office wasted no time distancing the governor from the scandal.
“Ms. Williamson no longer serves in this administration,” a spokesperson said. “While we are still learning details of the allegations, the Governor expects all public servants to uphold the highest standards of integrity. At a time when the President is openly calling for his Attorney General to investigate his political enemies, 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,” his office said.
McCluskie, a longtime aide to former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — now running for governor — is also implicated. Between February 2022 and September 2024, prosecutors say Williamson and her co-conspirators siphoned roughly $225,000 from Becerra’s dormant campaign account to line McCluskie’s pockets.
The indictment further accuses Williamson of cooking the books to secure fraudulent federal COVID loans and padding her tax filings with bogus business deductions for lavish personal spending, including luxury Mexican getaways, jewelry, handbags, high-end furniture, and private jet trips.
A veteran Sacramento power player, Williamson, 53, had served three California governors — Jerry Brown, Gray Davis, and Newsom — and ran her own consulting outfit, Grace Public Affairs. Known for her sharp elbows and political savvy, she was a fixture in the Capitol until stepping down amid tensions over Proposition 36.
In her December farewell, Williamson struck a nostalgic tone: “It’s always hard to leave this work, but in two short years, we’ve made a lasting impact. I’ve had the honor of serving under three governors and when asked what I will miss the most, my answer is always the same — the privilege of working with some of the smartest and most committed people I’ve ever known.”
Campbell, who operated a lobbying firm called Campbell Strategy & Advocacy, allegedly helped funnel the stolen campaign funds through various accounts to McCluskie’s benefit. The cash was disguised as salary for McCluskie’s spouse in a “no-show” position, according to prosecutors.
The filings claim McCluskie, while overseeing the dormant campaign, approved $7,500 monthly “consulting” payments to Williamson, a kickback setup that investigators say netted the group about $225,000.
The indictment also lists a shopping spree of phony deductions — $15,353 for a Chanel handbag and ring, $19,000 for a home HVAC system, $10,000 to a relative, and $21,175 for private jet travel — all falsely claimed as business expenses.
The total tax fraud topped nearly $1 million, prosecutors say.
The charges hit less than a year after Newsom replaced Williamson with Nathan Barankin, a former Kamala Harris adviser, as his top aide.
Speaker Mike Johnson revealed that House Republicans can be back in session in 48 hours if Democrats will stop playing games, pass the clean GOP House-passed short-term funding bill, and then work together on the larger bill before the year is over.During an interview on Fox Business, Johnson spoke about Senate Democrats voting on Monday to block a Republican-sponsored stopgap funding package for the 11th time as the shutdown enters its fourth week.
Senators approved the House-passed bill by a vote of 50-43, which allocates funding for the government until November 21. Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Independent Senator Angus King of Maine were the sole senators who deviated from party lines to support the bill’s advancement. Senator John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) abstained from voting.
“Yeah, thank you so much for being here. We are in the fourth week of this shutdown and we’ve got unpaid federal workers, families that rely on food programs. What do you say to those people, those Americans, why is the government still closed?” host Cheryl Casone asked.
“Yeah. Those categories that are listed by Leader Thune and yourself and so many others, real Americans are hurting and it is so frustrating to us, Cheryl, because the contrast so is clear. Remember, it was over a month ago that the House did our job, we passed a clean continuing resolution, totally nonpartisan, 24-page, very simple piece of legislation to just keep the lights on so the Congress could continue to do the work of appropriating the funds for the annual budget, and also for navigating all the rest of the issues we have on the table throughout the end of the year,” Johnson said.
“The Democrats voted it down, they’ve done it now almost a dozen times, as you said, because they’re playing partisan games. They filed a counterproposal. Let’s not let anybody forget what they filed as their counter-offer. Their CR is not a clean one, it’s a dirty one, because they want to spend a trillion and a half new dollars on all sorts of wasteful programs, including 200 billion dollars to fund healthcare benefits on the backs of American taxpayers for illegal aliens,” Johnson added.
“They want to give a half a billion dollars back to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to prop up leftist news organizations, and they want to spend billions of dollars overseas on all sorts of extraneous, crazy kinds of programs. They know we’re not going that,” he continued.
Johnson declared, “It is not a serious proposal. This is the first time in history that any party has chosen to shut the government down over a clean CR. They are playing a game, and it’s very simple — here’s the reason why. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the two leaders in both chambers for the Democratic side, are afraid of their far-left flank, they’re afraid they’re going to get a challenge in New York because Marxism is all the rage, and they’re going to lose their seats, so they’re putting up a fight. It makes no sens,e and real people are getting hurt.”
“Well, here’s the thing. You know, the mainstream media has asked me in all these interviews, ‘Why aren’t you negotiating?’ Cheryl, I literally don’t have anything to negotiate. In the past, when there has been a CR standoff like this, a continuing resolution to keep the government open, the majority party has loaded up the CR proposal with a lot of partisan priorities, you know, gimmicks and tricks sometimes,” Johnson said.
“We haven’t done any of that. I mean, we are operating in good faith. The Republicans are trying to keep the government moving forward, so we sent over a totally clean CR. So, in other words, there’s nothing I can pull off of that to make it more palatable for Democrats. It’s exactly what they already voted for,” he said.
“Chuck Schumer voted for the identical measure in March of this year, he gave an impassioned speech on the floor about how it had to be done because it’d be totally irresponsible to harm the American people by shutting the government down,” he added.
Johnson cloncluded, “The only thing that’s changed between March, seven months ago, and now is that Chuck Schumer is now afraid of the rise of Marxism in New York, that’s his home state, and he’s afraid he’s going to lose the seat that he’s held for so many years.”