A Democratic insider appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to a state board secretly recorded conversations while wearing an FBI wire inside the governor's political orbit, months before federal investigators expanded their probe to include Newsom himself and his wife.
Alexis Podesta, a 45-year-old longtime Democratic power broker in Sacramento, cooperated with federal investigators and wore a wire during the criminal case against Dana Williamson, Newsom's former chief of staff, the New York Post reported. Podesta's own attorney, Bill Portanova, identified her as the uncharged co-conspirator described in the Williamson indictment and confirmed her cooperation with the feds.
The revelation adds a new dimension to the federal investigation that has engulfed Newsom's administration. It means the FBI had someone inside the governor's circle, someone he personally appointed, recording conversations as far back as June 2024, well before Newsom went public with the fact that he and his family were under investigation.
Williamson, 53, pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, filing a false tax return, and making false statements to the FBI. Federal prosecutors alleged she and others orchestrated a scheme to siphon roughly $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services secretary who is now described as the Democratic frontrunner to succeed Newsom as governor.
Williamson disguised the payments as legitimate consulting fees while routing the money to benefit Becerra's former chief of staff, Sean McCluskie. Williamson's attorney, McGregor Scott, himself a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, drew a sharp contrast between his client and Podesta.
Scott told the Post plainly:
"Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not."
Williamson's plea agreement references a June 2024 wiretap in which she was captured strategizing with the co-conspirator, now identified as Podesta, about how to respond to a Public Records Act request involving the state's litigation against a company identified in reporting as Activision Blizzard. Court filings show Williamson, while serving as Newsom's chief of staff, shared confidential state government information with Podesta regarding a corporate client. The two exchanged text messages on the issue.
Scott stated that Williamson declined to cooperate with federal investigators because she had no information on Newsom.
Podesta is no minor figure in California Democratic politics. She previously served as secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency and held senior positions in Gov. Jerry Brown's administration. She also worked for PG&E, Disney, and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Newsom appointed Podesta to the board of the California State Compensation Insurance Fund in January 2020, a position that pays her nearly $61,000 annually. When Williamson left private consulting to become Newsom's chief of staff in late 2022, Podesta allegedly inherited responsibility for overseeing Becerra's dormant campaign account.
Campaign finance records show Becerra's committee paid the Podesta Company mostly $10,000 monthly installments during 2023 and 2024. Portanova, Podesta's attorney, stated she did not know the payments were improper. She has not been charged with a crime.
Podesta did not respond to requests for comment.
The FBI did not limit its surveillance to Williamson and Podesta. Last fall, Sacramento political insiders and lobbyists received letters from the bureau informing them that their phone calls had been intercepted during the investigation. Assemblymember Josh Hoover, a Republican from Folsom, was among the recipients.
Hoover told the Post he had never spoken with either Williamson or Podesta, yet still received a notification. He described the scope of the FBI's work:
"A lot of people received letters essentially informing us that there were certain periods of time where the FBI was given access to follow phone calls."
He added: "I don't know how these investigations work, but it sounds like they cast a pretty broad net across the Capitol community to see what they could find."
A separate source with knowledge of the matter said they knew of at least four Sacramento insiders who received FBI notifications confirming they had been recorded. One unnamed recipient reacted with alarm, saying: "Dude, I got this f---ing letter. I never even met with Dana Williamson!" That recipient's confusion, the source explained, now has an answer, Podesta was the one wearing the wire, and the FBI was intercepting calls connected to her as well.
Hoover did not hold back about what the investigation means for Newsom's administration, which has faced mounting questions about the governor's financial and political dealings:
"All of this stuff just raises so many questions. What is going on in this administration? What types of conversations are being had? I think the entire case should be really concerning for the general public. It's really raising a lot of mistrust."
Newsom announced last month that he, his wife, and members of his inner circle are under federal investigation. Federal investigators have reportedly spent the past year digging into the governor, his staff, and his wife's taxes. Whistleblowers reportedly tipped off the feds to launch the probe.
The governor's response followed a familiar playbook. He publicly accused President Trump of directing the Department of Justice to investigate him as political retaliation ahead of a possible 2028 presidential campaign. Within hours of making the announcement, Newsom emailed supporters to raise money for a political action committee.
His office declined the Post's request for comment on the circumstances involving Podesta, calling it a personnel matter. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California also declined comment.
The retaliation claim is a convenient frame, but it runs into a problem of chronology. Podesta was wearing a wire as far back as June 2024, well before any plausible timeline of Trump-directed political targeting could apply. The investigation into Williamson was already underway, the informant was already recording, and the FBI was already intercepting calls across Sacramento's political class.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the governor's wife, is also under federal scrutiny. Her nonprofit has faced separate questions about its finances, with reports indicating it has experienced significant financial losses in recent years.
Substantial questions hang over the case. No one has publicly disclosed what specific charges, if any, are being considered against the governor or his wife. It remains unclear whether Podesta was formally granted immunity or entered into a cooperation agreement, or whether her cooperation was informal. The content of the conversations she recorded has not been revealed.
Becerra's role, or lack of one, is another open thread. His dormant campaign account was allegedly the source of the siphoned $225,000, but it is unknown whether he has been contacted by federal investigators or is a subject of the probe. The same goes for McCluskie, the former Becerra chief of staff who allegedly benefited from the routed payments.
The broader pattern of corruption accusations surrounding the Newsom administration now includes a guilty plea from his former chief of staff, a cooperating informant he personally appointed to a state board, an FBI surveillance operation that swept up lawmakers and lobbyists, and a federal investigation into the governor and his wife that shows no sign of slowing.
Hoover summed up the situation with a directness Sacramento could use more of:
"I think it underlines how problematic this current administration is. [Newsom] is someone who wants to run for president of the United States. It's really disappointing to see that this is the level of our politics."
Newsom wants voters to believe this is all political. But the FBI didn't plant a mole in his orbit because of politics. Someone he trusted enough to appoint was recording conversations for federal investigators, and the governor apparently never knew. That's not retaliation. That's an administration that gave the feds plenty of reasons to listen.
