A longtime Democratic political insider secretly served as an informant for the FBI while working for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Alexis Podesta, who was appointed by Gov. Newsom to the board of the State Compensation Fund in 2020, was recruited by the FBI in 2024 to wear a wire while speaking and dealing with Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson.
To get approval to put a human source up against a sitting Governor is a BIG deal. The predicate for this is no joke — they had to have a lot already. Wow. Even I’m surprised by this. And I thought I was beyond that. https://t.co/u1gsaTLqXq
— Paul Mauro (@PaulDMauro) July 3, 2026
Williamson was being investigated for corruption at the time. In May of this year, she pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax charges.
“Federal prosecutors alleged Williamson and others orchestrated a scheme to siphon roughly $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra,” according to the New York Post.
Williamson allegedly “disguised payments as legitimate consulting fees while routing the money to benefit Becerra’s former chief of staff, Sean McCluskie.”
Dovetailing back to Podesta, she runs a consulting/lobbying firm called Podesta Company.
Her attorney told the Post that she inherited responsibility for overseeing Becerra’s dormant campaign account after Williamson left private consulting to become Newsom’s chief of staff in late 2022 and did not know the payments were improper.
“Campaign finance records show Becerra’s committee paid Podesta Company mostly $10,000 monthly installments during 2023 and 2024,” the Post notes.
Meanwhile, “Williamson, while serving as Newsom’s chief of staff, shared confidential state government information with a co-conspirator — who has since been identified as Podesta — regarding a corporate client that reporting has identified as Activision Blizzard.”
Williamson’s May plea agreement notes that she was recorded in a June 2024 wiretap strategizing with Podesta on how to respond to a Public Records Act request involving California’s litigation against the company.
This probe that started with Williamson has since expanded to include the governor and his wife. However, despite accusations to the contrary, the probe into the governor began during the Biden administration, not the Trump administration.
NEW: @realDailyWire has learned that there are multiple DOJ investigations going on related to Gavin Newsom, though none of them are directly into Newsom himself. One investigation, which began in 2025, is related to his wife and her taxes, a source familiar shared. A separate…
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 15, 2026
The investigation concerns two nonprofits, The Representation Project (TRP) and California Partners Project (CPP).
“Federal investigators are reportedly probing nonprofits linked to California first lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom, putting renewed scrutiny on two organizations that conservative watchdogs and media reports have criticized over alleged conflicts of interest tied to their proximity to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political orbit,” according to Fox News.
Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland has called the “amount of cash” involved “eye-catching.”
“The sheer amount of cash, combined with the nature and timing of government activity, is eye-catching — especially when unexpected windfalls are benefiting the contributors,” she told the Washington Free Beacon last year. “It’s past time for this cash flow to fall under intense scrutiny.”
Scrutiny of Newsom’s wife reportedly began in 2021 when the Sacramento Bee revealed that TRP had received over $800,000 from a dozen corporations with a history of lobbying California for policy concessions. The Bee also found that a large number of these companies later received favorable treatment from the governor.
More importantly, the Bee discovered that the revenue procured by Siebel Newsom’s nonprofits increased rapidly whenever her husband’s political career advanced further.
Newsom’s office has tried to deny everything.
“Ms. Siebel Newsom does not ‘oversee’ the nonprofits she’s involved with – that’s the role of an Executive Director and Board of Directors,” the office said in a statement to Fox News.
But the network pointed to 2024 tax files that showed Siebel Newsom was TRP’s highest-paid officer, director, or employee that year.
“TRP also cuts six-figure checks to a media production company owned by Siebel Newsom each year,” Fox News further noted.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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