A Democratic insider appointed to a state board by Gov. Gavin Newsom was secretly recording conversations on behalf of the FBI, wearing a wire as far back as June 2024, as part of a federal corruption investigation that has since expanded to include the governor himself and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

The informant was Alexis Podesta, a 45-year-old longtime Sacramento power broker with deep roots in California Democratic politics. Her attorney, Bill Portanova, has identified her as the uncharged co-conspirator described in the federal indictment of Dana Williamson, Newsom's former chief of staff, who pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, filing a false tax return, and making false statements to the FBI.

Williamson's attorney, McGregor Scott, himself a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, told the New York Post in plain terms:

"Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not."

That sentence captures the fault line now running through Newsom's political world. The FBI didn't just have a cooperating witness. It had a mole inside the governor's orbit, recording conversations while Newsom's own chief of staff allegedly leaked confidential government information and helped siphon roughly $225,000 from a dormant campaign account.

The scheme behind the guilty plea

Federal prosecutors allege Williamson, 53, orchestrated a scheme to drain 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. The money was disguised as legitimate consulting fees and routed to benefit Becerra's former chief of staff, Sean McCluskie.

Podesta inherited responsibility for overseeing Becerra's dormant campaign account after Williamson left private consulting. Campaign finance records show Becerra's committee paid Podesta's firm mostly in $10,000 monthly installments during 2023 and 2024. Portanova has said Podesta did not know the payments were improper.

But the financial misconduct was only part of the picture. Court filings from Williamson's plea agreement reveal that while serving as Newsom's chief of staff, a position she assumed in late 2022, Williamson shared confidential state government information with Podesta regarding a corporate client identified as Activision Blizzard. A June 2024 wiretap captured the two strategizing about how to respond to a Public Records Act request involving the state's litigation against the company.

Williamson and Podesta also exchanged text messages on the subject, court records show.

FBI cast a wide net across Sacramento

The investigation's reach extends well beyond Williamson and Podesta. Last fall, Sacramento political insiders and lobbyists began receiving FBI notification letters informing them that their phone calls had been intercepted during the probe. Republican Assemblymember Josh Hoover of Folsom was among the recipients, and he told the Post he had never even spoken with Williamson or Podesta.

"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. 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 said they knew of at least four Sacramento insiders who received the FBI notifications confirming their calls had been recorded. One unnamed recipient reacted with bewilderment, telling an associate, in language too colorful for a family publication, that they had never even met with Williamson and had no idea why their calls were swept up.

The answer, it now appears, is Podesta. The wire she wore and the wiretaps the FBI obtained gave investigators access to a web of conversations radiating outward from Newsom's inner circle. That web apparently caught people who had no connection to the alleged fraud, but whose conversations with Podesta were nonetheless captured.

Hoover did not hold back about what the probe says about California's current leadership. Newsom has positioned himself as a potential 2028 presidential contender, but Hoover suggested the investigation should give voters pause:

"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."

He added: "I think it underlines how problematic this current administration is. He 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's response: blame Trump, raise money

Newsom announced last month that he, his wife, and members of his inner circle are under federal investigation. His public response followed a familiar script. He accused President Trump of directing the Department of Justice to investigate him as political retaliation, a charge that conveniently frames the governor as a victim of partisan overreach rather than a subject of legitimate law-enforcement scrutiny.

Siebel Newsom, whose nonprofit has reportedly been burning through money in recent years and whose taxes are now under federal review, accused Trump of having "no boundaries."

Within hours of Newsom's announcement, the governor blasted out an email to raise money for a political action committee. Whatever the merits of the federal probe, Newsom wasted no time monetizing it. The governor's history of creative PAC spending gives that fundraising pitch an extra layer of irony.

Scott, Williamson's attorney, told the Post that his client declined to cooperate with federal investigators because she had no information on Newsom. Whether that claim holds up as the investigation expands remains to be seen.

Newsom's governor's office declined to comment on the circumstances involving Podesta, calling it "a personnel matter." The U.S. Attorney's Office also declined comment.

Podesta: the insider's insider

Podesta's biography reads like a directory of California Democratic power. She previously served as secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. She held senior positions in Gov. Jerry Brown's administration. She worked for PG&E, Disney, and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Newsom appointed her to the board of California's State Compensation Insurance Fund in January 2020, a position she still holds, drawing annual compensation of nearly $61,000. That means a sitting Newsom appointee was cooperating with federal investigators while collecting a state paycheck from a board the governor placed her on.

Podesta has not been charged with a crime. Portanova, her attorney, confirmed she cooperated with the FBI but did not respond to the Post's most recent requests for comment. Neither did Podesta herself.

The question of how Podesta came to cooperate, whether she approached the FBI or was recruited, remains unanswered. So does the full scope of what she recorded. The June 2024 wiretap interaction with Williamson is the only specific recording described in court filings. But the FBI notification letters sent to multiple Sacramento figures suggest the surveillance operation was far broader than a single conversation.

What remains unanswered

The probe raises questions that no one in Newsom's orbit seems eager to answer. What specific charges, if any, are being considered against the governor or his wife? What was the full nature of the "confidential state government information" Williamson allegedly shared beyond the Activision Blizzard matter? Federal intervention in California's political landscape has become a recurring theme, but the Williamson guilty plea and Podesta's cooperation are not political theater. They are the documented output of a criminal investigation.

Has Williamson been sentenced? The record does not yet say. What is Sean McCluskie's current status, is he under investigation, or merely described as a beneficiary of the alleged scheme? Also unclear. And what about Becerra himself, whose dormant campaign account was allegedly looted? The reporting does not state that Becerra is under investigation, but his name now sits uncomfortably close to a federal fraud case.

Newsom has spent months picking fights with the federal government over taxes, immigration, and executive authority. He has cast himself as the leader of the resistance, the man who stands between California and Washington overreach. That posture looks rather different when the FBI has had someone inside your circle wearing a wire for over a year.

Newsom wants voters to believe this is all political retaliation. His former chief of staff already pleaded guilty. His own appointee was the one holding the recorder. At some point, the "it's all Trump's fault" defense runs into the facts, and the facts don't care about your presidential ambitions.