Gavin Newsom praised ‘bully’ ex-chief of employees at coronary heart of FBI probe

Gov. Gavin Newsom praised his disgraced chief of employees for her service to California throughout her two-year tenure in his workplace when she left his workplace in 2024 — regardless of understanding she was beneath the investigation by the FBI.

Dana Williamson, 53, had been interviewed by the FBI in November, and was quietly positioned on depart, earlier than being given a hero’s departure on the best way out by Newsom only a month later.

Williamson, a Sacramento political veteran, was a key liaison between the governor and lawmakers, labor unions and enterprise pursuits.

“I vastly admire Dana’s counsel and her service to the state and the individuals of California over the past two years. Her perception, tenacity, and large coronary heart shall be missed,” he had mentioned in a press release in December 2024.

Williamson could be ultimately indited by a federal grand jury in November, 2025, on 23 preliminary fees together with financial institution and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and false statements.

She was interviewed by the FBI in November 2024, positioned on depart in consequence, after which she formally left in December.

The Submit revealed Thursday that Alexis Podesta wore a wire and for the FBI as a part of the investigation.

Because the Submit reported, as a part of the probe into Williamson, her then-ally Alexis Podesta, 45, had worn a wire way back to June 2024 and secretly recorded conversations.

In Might, Williamson pled responsible after reaching a cope with prosecutors over a scheme to bilk $225,000 from a dormant marketing campaign account of Newsom’s seemingly successor Xavier Becerra to pay for private bills.

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Newsom’s modified his tune on Williamson, calling her confessions of mendacity to FBI as ”simply incorrect” and denying he’s implicated in any method.

“It’s onerous, I simply consider her daughter, however I”m additionally aware of accountability,” Newsom mentioned.

Williamson was a tricky and hard-headed negotiator, in keeping with critics, who claimed she was like a “bully” or a “mafia boss.”

“Dana has a status for being reckless, for being irresponsible and for being a bully,” Gil Duran, a former co-worker beneath former Gov. Jerry Brown, instructed CNN.

“She was any person who beloved energy and beloved to abuse energy.”

Williamson’s shadow is creating a brand new political headache for Newsom as he prepares an anticipated run for President in 2028.

Final month, he got here out and claimed that he and his spouse had been beneath a probe by the feds as political retaliation by the Trump administration.

There was no publicly disclosed connection between Williamson’s fees and the probe into the governor, however hypothesis that there’s one has run rampant.

Williamson’s legal professional had instructed The Submit that his consumer declined to cooperate as a result of she had no data on Newsom.

Sources acquainted with the matter have instructed The Submit that federal investigators have spent the previous yr digging into not solely Newsom, but additionally his employees and his spouse’s taxes.

Spokespeople for Newsom have dismissed the probe as political nonsense.

“The DOJ is now on this lawless fishing expedition at Trump’s directive,” Newsom’s workplace mentioned.

“Empty-handed, however beneath orders from the White Home to search out one thing, they’re now chasing ghosts and launching investigations primarily based on conspiracy theories.”