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Dana Williamson, 53, agreed to a restrictive bail package that includes her agreeing to not drink “any alcohol” after her arrest on a slew of alleged corruption charges
Dana Williamson – the former top aide to Governor Gavin Newsom, who was under investigation by the FBI as she held a powerful position in California’s state government – was being secretly surveilled and wiretapped during meetings with her codefendants last year, court records reviewed by Los Angeles reveal.
The powerful Democratic operative was arrested Wednesday at her home outside of Sacramento, federal prosecutors say. She pleaded not guilty at her initial appearance in front of a federal judge on a 23-count federal indictment.
Prosecutors say Williamson, who served as the governor’s top aide from 2022 until 2024, is accused of helping funnel around $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to current California gubernatorial candidate and former Health and Human Services Secretary for the Biden administration, Xavier Becerra.
Williamson had served as Becerra’s campaign manager in 2018 during his successful reelection campaign for California State Attorney General and launched the scheme, federal prosecutors say, with a longtime top prosecutor from that office in 2022.
Sean McCluskie was Becerra’s second in command in the California AG’s Office, going back to 2017, and he then followed his boss into the Biden Administration in 2021 when he was appointed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. He has since admitted to colluding with Williamson, along with his wife, stay-at-home mom Kerry MacKay, to funnel money out of a dormant campaign account containing funds raised for a future run at state office for Becerra.
McCluskie told a federal judge he was motivated by corruption and thievery alongside Williamson and a Sacramento lobbyist named Greg Campbell, in part to pad his paycheck because his new $183,000 a year salary in Washington D.C. was a pay cut, and he had additional travel expenses because he didn’t want to move to the Capitol.
McCluskie admitted to tapping into Becerra’s coffers in an elaborate scheme with Williamson that would funnel money through consulting contracts that named his wife, Kerry MacKay. According to federal court records, MacKay was paid as a “communications consultant,” which prosecutors say was in fact a no-show job. Williamson, a political consultant at the time, also billed Becerra’s campaign for consulting services that were never performed.
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Both McCluskie and MacKay have removed their LinkedIn profiles and continue to live in a million-dollar-plus home in Davis, California.
When Williamson learned she was being investigated for PPE loan fraud in the spring of 2024, prosecutors say, she reached out to the McCluskies to engage in what investigators call a cover-up attempt – one that was secretly recorded by the FBI. The three of them met near the Statehouse building for separate meetings in July, August and September 2024, according to his plea agreement. The last meeting came in September 2024, when Newsom’s administration was grappling with a series of wildfires.
“Collectively, they funneled the money through various business entities and disguised it as pay for what was, in reality, a no-show job,” FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Sid Patel said in a news release after Williamson’s arrest.
Williamson is also accused of illegally writing off $1 million in vacations, luxury purses and private jet travel as business expenses on her federal income tax returns and illegally obtaining bogus PPE COVID loans.
Williamson, a longtime and powerful Democratic political consultant, pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing on Wednesday in Sacramento and has since agreed to turn over her passport and abide by special conditions imposed by a federal judge. Williamson, whose lawyer said she is awaiting a liver transplant, signed a court order that required an unusual emphasis on her remaining abstinent from liquor that read: “You must refrain from any use of alcohol.”
Both of her former bosses, Newsom and Becerra, have denied any wrongdoing and have not been named as targets in the investigation. Becerra is continuing his campaign to replace Newsom as California’s next governor.
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Michele McPhee
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