Alexis Podesta Wore FBI Wire in Investigation of Newsom’s Former Chief of Staff

Alexis Podesta Wore FBI Wire in Investigation of Newsom’s Former Chief of Staff

The California Post reported that the FBI had a mole within Gov. Gavin Newsom’s inner circle wear a wire during an investigation into his then-chief of staff.

The investigation began in 2022, and the mole wore the wire in 2024:

Democrat insider Alexis Podesta, 45, secretly recorded conversations during the criminal probe into Newsom’s then-chief of staff, Dana Williamson, 53, who pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax charges in May, according to Williamson’s attorney.

The revelation she was wearing a wire as far back as June 2024 explains why a swath of Sacramento political insiders and lobbyists were stunned to receive FBI letters last fall informing them that their phone calls had been intercepted during the investigation — despite many having little or no connection to Williamson.

“Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not,” said McGregor Scott, Williamson’s lawyer and a former US attorney for the Eastern District of California, which is now investigating the Newsoms.

As Leslie wrote, the investigation began in 2022.

Williamson pleaded guilty “to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, subscribing to a false tax return, and making false statements to a federal agent” in May.

Court records indicate that Williamson conspired with others to steal $225,000 from then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s dormant campaign account:

Williamson disguised payments as legitimate consulting fees while routing the money to benefit Becerra’s former chief of staff, Sean McCluskie.

Podesta’s attorney has said 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.

According to court filings, 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 also claimed $1,718,277 “in business deductions for what were actually personal and nondeductible expenditures, such as food delivery services, luxury vacations to Mexico (twice) and Santa Barbara, private jet travel, purported wages for family members, home goods, veterinary services, landscaping services, and other nondeductible personal expenses.”

From what I can tell, Alexis is not related to political operative John Podesta. They just happen to share a last name.

Alexis Podesta worked as the then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s “director of external affairs, director of international affairs and chief of protocol.”

Podesta then became the secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency from 2017 to 2020.

Podesta also served as the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s director of scheduling.

Other jobs include roles at PG&E and the Walt Disney Co. But Podesta has owned the Podesta Company since 2020, a lobbying and government affairs firm based in Sacramento.

At the same time, Newsom appointed Podesta “to the board of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, where she remains today — collecting nearly $61,000 a year from taxpayers despite emerging as a central figure in the federal corruption probe swirling around the governor’s political orbit.”

[Featured image via YouTube]

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