Blog Details

As the Department of Justice probes Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife on a number of fronts, a new scandal intelligent one of his closest oldschool aides is raising recent questions about the firm he saved in Sacramento.

Dana Williamson, who led Newsom’s space of job as chief of workers from slack 2022 to early 2025, pleaded guilty closing month to a conspiracy to loot a congressional marketing campaign memoir tied to Xavier Becerra — the oldschool Biden cupboard secretary now leading the Democratic arena to exchange Newsom as California governor.

But that was finest segment of Williamson’s real troubles. She also admitted to filing mistaken tax returns and lying to the FBI about her legitimate dealings intelligent oldschool client Activision Blizzard — the video sport giant on the guts of one of California’s most excessive-profile space of job discrimination cases.

Williamson’s guilty plea — and a highly anticipated sentencing listening to next month — has solid a glaring spotlight on Newsom, who this week accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the Justice Department in opposition to him as he weighs a plod for president in 2028.

A provide mindful of the federal probes urged The California Put up that Williamson’s actions might presumably presumably recent a notify mission for the governor, who curiously issued a statement honoring “her insight, tenacity, and nice coronary heart” no topic luminous she was underneath FBI investigation when she left his space of job in slack 2024.

The investigation into Williamson dates help to 2022, a provide urged The Put up, and other shops beget reported that the standard investigation stemmed from whistleblower complaints right here in California. Investigators, meanwhile, beget an increasing selection of eager on Newsom’s orbit over the final one year. 

Williamson’s conduct appears to be like to be one aspect of a broader inquiry that entails scrutiny of Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s taxes and industry preparations and contributors of the governor’s workers.

Neither Newsom nor his wife had been charged with any wrongdoing.

Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for the governor, disregarded the federal inquiry Friday as a politically motivated effort to injury the governor before a possible White Home plod.

“What we attain know is that federal investigators had been contacting family chums, donors, oldschool workers and colleagues, subpoenaing records and asking questions about the governor’s finances, organizations linked to the first partner, and even deeply deepest family matters,” Gallegos urged The Put up in an email.

She added that the governor’s space of job has now no longer been urged namely what the Justice Department is investigating and accused federal authorities of pursuing “chasing ghosts and launching investigations constant with conspiracy theories.”

“The mission isn’t of us or organizations,” Gallegos acknowledged. “The mission is that after failing to put wrongdoing by the governor in their normal line of inquiry, investigators seem like casting an ever-wider web searching for something they might be able to exercise.”

Gallegos also sought to distance Newsom from Williamson’s felony case, asserting the feds supplied her a “deal,” nonetheless “the governor by no manner dedicated against the law, so there was nothing for her to ‘provide.’”

Correct experts train the public evidence accessible to this level leaves open two competing chances: Williamson’s crimes are politically embarrassing nonetheless legally inappropriate for Newsom, or investigators have faith her conduct outcomes in broader wrongdoing.

Paul DeGroot, a oldschool chief prosecutor who oversaw public corruption cases in Passaic County, New Jersey, urged The Put up that federal prosecutors now no longer often target sitting governors until they have faith they might be able to within the extinguish expose their case at trial.

“A federal or speak prosecutor will finest indict a govt legitimate, in particular a excessive-ranking one, if the prosecutor believes they’ll be in a position to expose against the law has befell beyond a cheap doubt,” DeGroot acknowledged.

“As such, you now no longer often scrutinize conditions of a prosecutor searching for to indict a governor.”

He acknowledged Williamson’s guilty plea locations Newsom in a cultured space on memoir of defendants going through foremost penal complicated time on the total cooperate with investigators.

“Recurrently, the finest life like choice an particular individual has to pause out of penal complicated is to cooperate with legislation enforcement in opposition to others,” DeGroot acknowledged.

“A target of an investigation should always frequently agonize about a cooperating explore beforehand in their internal circle thanks to the explore’s desperation to live away from penal complicated time and capability to attribute statements and actions to the target.”

On the same time, DeGroot added, “the finest protection is a real offense.”

“Governor Newsom need take into memoir no extra than President Trump about how a prosecution framed as being politically motivated can in fact support the defendant baby-kisser on the polls.”

Complicating the governor’s myth is the truth that among the crimes on the guts of Williamson’s plea deal befell during her time with the Newsom administration.

In 2021, California’s Department of Shapely Employment and Housing – now the Civil Rights Department – sued Activision Blizzard, alleging the video sport giant fostered a pervasive “frat boy” culture where females confronted sexual harassment, unequal pay and retaliation.

The lawsuit alleged females had been urged into decrease-paying roles, denied promotions and punished for pregnancy and motherhood. 

One woman was allegedly urged she might presumably presumably no longer be promoted on memoir of she might presumably presumably perhaps “salvage pregnant and admire being a mom too noteworthy,” whereas every other killed herself during a industry inch with a male supervisor who had introduced intercourse toys and lubricant.

The speak’s chief counsel Janette Wipper was fired after raising concerns about political interference, whereas her deputy, Melanie Proctor, resigned and alleged the governor’s space of job was “mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.”

Newsom’s space of job denied the allegations.

The controversy intensified after Activision board member Casey Wasserman — the media multi-millionaire and chair of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles — donated $100,000 to Newsom’s anti-recall marketing campaign weeks after the lawsuit was filed.

Gallegos confirmed to The Put up that federal investigators beget spent time examining allegations linked to Activision Blizzard, nonetheless she acknowledged nothing was chanced on and any suggestion that Newsom or the distance of job “tilted the tip outcomes of a case to help Activision is absurd on its face.”

She successfully-known that Activision’s then-CEO, Bobby Kotick, “spent years opposing the governor politically,” donating roughly $1 million to campaigns in opposition to Newsom.

“Fairly than closing the e book, investigators seem to beget moved on to the next conspiracy theories searching for something they might be able to exercise,” Gallegos acknowledged. “That’s the pattern we’re seeing during this investigation.”

California at closing agreed to a $54 million settlement with Activision Blizzard in slack 2023 — nonetheless now no longer sooner than dramatically scaling help its blockbuster case.

As segment of the deal, the speak dropped its sexual harassment claim. The consent decree also acknowledged that neither a court nor an self reliant investigation chanced on evidence of systemic or frequent sexual harassment on the gaming giant.

An FBI wiretap in June 2024 would chronicle how Williamson planned to quash a public records quiz from Proctor searching for to carry particulars across the Activision case to light. Williamson was positioned on leave months later after informing the governor’s space of job she was underneath federal investigation.

Her felony expert, oldschool US Attorney McGregor Scott, has characterized the broader probe as politically motivated and acknowledged Williamson declined to salvage investigators with records about Newsom on memoir of she had none to give. Scott didn’t acknowledge to quiz for observation Friday.

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law College, acknowledged the evidence made public to this level would no longer put felony liability for the governor.

“At this level,” Levinson acknowledged, “I’m able to’t expose whether or now no longer right here is merely embarrassing for him on memoir of he employed any person that engaged in federal felony behavior, or whether or now no longer there’s more of a connection than any one is conscious of about.”

Private eye Safe The California Put up App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters