Trouble For Gavin Newsom? DOJ Indicts His Former Chief Of Staff In Scheme To Embezzle Campaign Funds and Tax Fraud
An investigation begun by Biden DOJ holds the potential for a major scandal at the top of the Democrat Party in California
Nothing crystalizes the mind in terms of one’s choices in life quite like the prospect of leaving all you know behind for a federal jail sentence, to be followed by a life where that criminal history will dog you down every path you follow.
Yesterday the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment of Dana Williamson, the Chief of Staff to California Governor Gavin Newsom from 2022 to 2024. At this point Williamson is the only defendant named in the Indictment. Prior to her position with Newsom — where she had the reputation as his “enforcer” — she was also a key political advisor to California Democrat Governors Gray Davis and Jerry Brown. She has lived through the ascendency of the Democrat Party in Sacramento and California over the past 20 years.
There were other charging documents filed — consecutively numbered Informations charging Greg Campbell and Sean McCluskie. The fact that they were charged by Information and were both named in the Williamson indictment, but not charged as co-conspirators, means that they have pled guilty and are cooperating with the FBI in exchange for consideration on their sentences.
This investigation began under the Biden Administration. Williamson’s quiet departure as Newsom’s Chief of Staff was announced only December 12, 2024, a week after her last day. At the time there was no disclosure that she had been placed on Administrative Leave in November 2024 when the Biden DOJ informed Newsom that she was under investigation.
Williamson wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill political staffer — she was Chief of Staff to a Presidential aspirant and Governor of the most populous and prosperous state in the United States. She was a fixture among Democrat Party staffers at the very top of the Democrat Party in Sacramento.
