When California Governor Gavin Newsom took to social media last month to declare that he and his wife had landed on President Donald Trump’s “nefarious hit list,” it felt like standard theater for a politician eyeing a future White House bid. Newsom loudly accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the Department of Justice to manufacture a criminal investigation out of thin air to derail his political ambitions.
“They have not found a crime — they are simply trying to find one,” Newsom posted on X, branding Trump “the most corrupt President in American history.”
It was a compelling defense narrative. There is only one problem: the federal dragnet closing in on Newsom’s inner circle didn’t start under Donald Trump. It was quietly launched by Joe Biden’s Department of Justice.
A stunning series of disclosures has pulled back the curtain on a massive federal public corruption probe that has been rattling Sacramento for months. Far from a sudden partisan ambush, the investigation features a high-level Democratic operative wearing a hidden wire, wiretapped conversations dating back to mid-2024, and a former gubernatorial chief of staff who has already pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax charges.
Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime – they are simply trying to find one.
He isn't coming after me because of mean tweets, but because I am considering running for President.… pic.twitter.com/tVYk3WUvO8
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 15, 2026
The Mole in the Governor’s Orbit
The political landscape in California shifted dramatically following a report from the New York Post revealing that the FBI managed to place a secret informant directly inside Newsom’s political kitchen cabinet.
Alexis Podesta, a prominent 45-year-old Democratic insider and strategist, was secretly recording conversations for federal agents as early as June 2024. At that time, Joe Biden was firmly in the Oval Office and his DOJ was directing the operation.
Podesta’s cooperation explains a mystery that had left Sacramento elite paralyzed with anxiety last autumn. Dozens of high-profile political insiders, lawmakers, and lobbyists were stunned to receive formal letters from the FBI informing them that their personal phone calls had been intercepted by federal wiretaps. Many of the recipients had little to no direct connection to the primary target of the probe, illustrating just how wide the federal net had been cast.
At the time, local media like The Sacramento Bee speculated the wiretaps might be tied to a lingering 2019 state sexual harassment investigation into the gaming giant Activision Blizzard, known for the Call of Duty franchise. While that corporate litigation does play a role in the scandal, the criminal reality is far more severe, bringing public corruption charges directly to the doorstep of the governor’s office.
Luxuries, No-Show Jobs, and Dormant Cash
The immediate casualty of Podesta’s wirework was 53-year-old Dana Williamson, who served as Governor Newsom’s chief of staff until late 2022. In May, Williamson entered a federal guilty plea, formalizing her role in what prosecutors dubbed a “Conduit Scheme.”
According to the Department of Justice, between February 2022 and September 2024, Williamson conspired with political operatives Greg Campbell and Sean McCluskie to siphon roughly $225,000 from a dormant campaign finance account. The account belonged to former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, left inactive after he departed the state to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. Becerra himself was reportedly entirely unaware of the theft.
The co-conspirators funneled the stolen campaign cash through a web of shell business entities, disguising the money as legitimate wages paid to McCluskie’s spouse for what federal prosecutors described as a “no-show job.”
But Williamson’s financial malpractice extended far beyond campaign finance fraud. Her plea agreement detailed a massive tax evasion scheme spanning 2021 to 2023, during which she claimed $1.71 million in fraudulent business deductions to cover lavish personal expenses. Taxpayers and the IRS effectively bankrolled:
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Private jet travel and luxury vacations to Santa Barbara and Mexico.
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Premium food delivery services and residential landscaping.
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High-end home goods, veterinary bills, and unearned wages for family members.
In total, Williamson’s falsified deductions resulted in a tax loss of $504,523—an amount she has agreed to pay back to the IRS in full as part of her restitution.
Leaking Secrets from the Inside
While the financial fraud is severe, it is the intersection of politics and corporate influence that poses the most acute danger to the governor. Court filings reveal that while Williamson was actively serving as Newsom’s chief of staff, she abused her position to leak confidential state government information to a co-conspirator—now unmasked as Podesta.
The leaked data directly concerned the state’s high-profile litigation against Activision Blizzard. Federal wiretaps from June 2024 caught Williamson and Podesta actively strategizing on how to manipulate public perception and dodge transparent Public Records Act requests regarding the corporate lawsuit.
The ties binding Podesta to the Newsom administration are deep. In 2020, Governor Newsom personally appointed her to a lucrative seat on the State Compensation Insurance Fund board. She also boasts historic ties to the Newsoms through her work in former Governor Jerry Brown’s administration, back when Newsom served as lieutenant governor.
The Diaper Premium and a Strategy of Deflection
As federal investigators map the outer edges of this political circle, separate oversight questions are beginning to swirl around the governor’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Scrutiny has intensified regarding a state-funded nonprofit led by an executive closely linked to the First Lady.
The nonprofit received substantial amounts of California taxpayer funding to distribute diapers to low-income families. While these basic goods can be purchased on the open wholesale market for roughly $0.12 to $0.15 each, state records indicate the organization was billing California taxpayers up to $0.50 per diaper.
While neither the diaper pricing discrepancies nor the campaign finance theft have directly implicated Governor Newsom in criminal wrongdoing, the proximity of the actors has transformed the capital into a political minefield.
Which brings the narrative back to Newsom’s aggressive public declarations of a Trump-led “witch hunt.” By framing the DOJ’s actions as a sudden, vindictive assault by a political rival, Newsom appears to be utilizing a classic survival strategy: executing a preemptive strike to control the media narrative before the full scope of a multi-year federal corruption probe becomes public knowledge.
Yet, the timeline stubbornly refuses to cooperate with the Governor’s rhetoric. A public corruption investigation involving hidden wires, state secrets, and a chief of staff’s felony plea cannot be easily dismissed as an overnight political hit job when it was initiated under a Democratic president. With federal prosecutors holding months of intercepted recordings from the heart of the state’s political establishment, the drama in Sacramento is likely just getting started.