Who are the co-conspirators and businesses in Dana Williamson’s indictment?
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- Federal indictment charges Dana Williamson and others with funneling campaign funds.
- Prosecutors allege payments routed through consulting firms to a no‑show spouse.
- Indictment includes unnamed lobbyists, firms and banks; charges carry heavy penalties.
Dana Williamson, a longtime Sacramento powerbroker and former chief of staff to Gov. Gavin Newsom, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to 23 counts of bank and wire fraud.
The 34-page indictment, which The Sacramento Bee obtained shortly after her arrest, names multiple banks and businesses through which five co-conspirators, including Williamson, stole and funneled money from a dormant campaign account belonging to Xavier Becerra, a former California congressman, Attorney General and Cabinet secretary who is now running for governor in the 2026 election. Becerra is not charged with any wrongdoing.
Two others involved in the scheme – Sean McCluskie, a longtime chief of staff for Becerra, and California lobbyist Greg Campbell – agreed to plea deals in the case. The charges accuse the three of funneling campaign money through various consulting firms to pay McCluskie’s wife $10,000 per month for a “no-show” job.
Williamson, who left Newsom’s office late last year, is also charged with fraudulently writing off $1 million in personal expenses as business charges, including luxury travel and handbags.
She served as the governor’s chief of staff from late 2022 to December 2024. Announcing her departure, Newsom’s office applauded her service – but said Wednesday it had placed her on leave the month prior, after she informed them about the FBI investigation. The 18 bank and wire fraud charges each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
Court documents, lobbying and campaign finance records show the people involved in the FBI probe have relationships with various gubernatorial administrations including Newsom, Jerry Brown and Gray Davis and with other state officials like Becerra.
Some, including Williamson, have ties to powerful companies in the private sector, like PG&E and professional sports teams, and are regularly listed on the Capitol Weekly Top 100, an annual list of the most powerful non-elected people in California politics.
“The Epstein class must go. So must the Sacramento consultant machine,” Rep. Ro Khanna said Thursday on X. “Indictments are a toxic stain on our Golden state. Ban corporate cash in California and clean up the mess.”
Here’s what The Bee has confirmed about the individuals and entities in the indictment:
Co-Conspirator 1: Dana Williamson
Before joining the Newsom administration, Williamson had worked for decades in Sacramento as a strategist advising both ballot measures like Proposition 27, the 2022 online sports betting initiative, and candidates like Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and Becerra in his 2018 Attorney General race.
After leaving PG&E, where she served as director of public affairs from 2006 to 2011, Williamson served in Gov. Brown’s administration. In 2017, after leaving Brown’s office to start her own firm, she was accused of secretly lobbying his administration on behalf of the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s electric grid.
Prosecutors said in the indictment that part of the scheme overlapped with her time in Newsom’s office. Though Newsom’s office has noted that she was not involved with the bank and wire fraud activity when she was his chief of staff, the indictment makes clear that she was corresponding with her alleged co-conspirators as late as September 2024, two months before she stepped down.
According to the indictment, Williamson met with McCluskie starting in February 2022 and formulated the scheme to funnel payments from Becerra’s dormant account to McCluskie. Williamson initially began billing the campaign in monthly $10,000 increments, for consulting services, and she would then direct those payments to companies owned by Campbell, who then sent them onto an outside payroll provider disguised as payments for McCluskie’s wife. The payroll provider would then deposit the funds into an account owned by McCluskie.
Though the investigation began under the Biden administration, Williamson’s attorney, former federal prosecutor McGregor Scott, blasted the federal charges as politically motivated.
After pleading not guilty to the charges, Williamson walked out of the courtroom accompanied by Scott and Deborah Hoffman, Newsom’s chief deputy director at the Office of Tax Appeals and a longtime friend of Williamson.
Hoffman, who previously served as senior adviser to former state Veterans Affairs Secretary Lindsey Sin, could not be reached for comment.
A spokesperson for the Office of Tax Appeals, Julissa de Gonzalez, said Hoffman was not at the courthouse in her official capacity, and said that Hoffman’s last day in the office will be Friday “as part of her expected retirement,” de Gonzalez said.
Co-Conspirator 2: Alexis Podesta
Alexis Podesta is listed as an unindicted, unnamed co-conspirator, her attorney Bill Portnova confirmed Wednesday. According to court documents, the alleged fraud scheme to enrich McCluskie moved to her company in late 2022 when Williamson began working in Newsom’s office.
Portnova said that Podesta inherited Williamson’s books after taking over Becerra’s campaign account, and that she did not know the monthly payments to McCluskie were fraudulent. Per hte indictment, Williamson told Podesta to bill Becerra’s account starting in January 2023 for purported consulting services at $10,000 a month.
Like Williamson, Podesta worked at PG&E, as a special assistant to the late Nancy McFadden from 2009 to 2011, according to Podesta’s LinkedIn. McFadden, who died in 2018, was an adviser for Brown in addition to being a PG&E executive.
Podesta appears to have cooperated with investigators and recorded multiple meetings between Williamson and Campbell in the summer of 2024 via phone calls and at a restaurant in downtown Sacramento.
She has years of experience working for various officials and areas of California government, including as Brown’s chief of protocol and Secretary for the state Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.
She currently sits on the board of the State Compensation Insurance Fund.
Co-Conspirator 3: Greg Campbell
Campbell is a registered lobbyist who owns the firm Campbell Strategy & Advocacy. Before starting the firm he worked as chief of staff to former state Assembly Speakers John Perez and Toni Atkins.
The Sacramento lobbyist’s clients include tech giants like Amazon and TikTok, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants, Major League Baseball, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, among others.
In an email to The Bee, Campbell’s lawyer, Todd Pickles, said his client “takes full accountability for his actions and is cooperating fully with the legal process.”
“Additionally, on a personal note, I know Greg Campbell to be an honorable former public servant and a positive and respected member of the community who has conducted himself with integrity through this deeply challenging process,” Pickles wrote.
The indictment said Williamson paid $10,000 monthly to a company Campbell was a founding member of, after which Campbell would divert the money to a payroll provider, which would then deposit the funds into a credit union account controlled by McCluskie to pay McCluskie’s wife.
Campbell also drew up contracts and backdated them to “falsely indicate” that they were executed years earlier, at Williamson’s request.
Co-Conspirator 4: Sean McCluskie
McCluskie was a longtime chief of staff for Becerra during the latter’s tenure as a member of Congress, Attorney General and at HHS. According to court documents, McCluskie took a significant pay cut to move from the California Department of Justice to the federal Health and Human Services agency.
He and Williamson met at a midtown Sacramento restaurant in February 2022, where he allegedly told Williamson he wanted more money. The two then hatched the plan to pay his spouse through Becerra’s dormant campaign funds by funneling it through businesses including one owned by Williamson, starting in April 2022.
According to the indictment, the conspiracy’s purpose was to steal money from Becerra’s accounts for “McCluskie’s own benefit” by covertly funneling payments via companies controlled by Williamson, Podesta and Campbell to hide that they were being sent to McCluskie’s account.
The payments were then disguised as payments to McCluskie’s wife. McCluskie would “personally approve or have his spouse” approve the invoices, and did not disclose their relationship to the law firm that oversaw Becerra’s dormant campaign accounts, issued payments and prepared the required campaign financial disclosures. McCluskie and his wife have different last names, an omission that “made it less likely” that the law firm would ask questions, discover the illegal scheme and refuse to issue the money, according to the indictment.
McCluskie’s wife did not do any work for any of the people or companies listed in the indictment, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said McCluskie asked HHS’s Office of General Counsel to approve his wife to work as a communications consultant “advising on digital ad placements and misc. (miscellaneous) communications” for political campaigns, a job that was “unnecessary and illegal for the dormant campaign” because Becerra was prohibited from campaigning while a federal appointee.
McCluskie “intentionally concealed” to the office that the payments were for a “no-show job” for his wife, and that her pay would come from Becerra’s dormant campaign fund. McCluskie also told Becerra that his wife had obtained a job with Grace Public Affairs, Williamson’s company.
McCluskie and Williamson “made these misrepresentations and omissions because they believed, correctly, that (Becerra) would not have permitted the payments” if he knew the truth, the indictment read.
McCluskie’s attorney, Daniel Olmos, declined to comment Thursday.
Co-Conspirator 5: Kerry MacKay
Court documents describe an unnamed co-conspirator as McCluskie’s wife, a stay-at-home parent who had prior experience working in media. Public records show McCluskie is married to Kerry MacKay, and that the couple lives in Davis.
According to the indictment, McCluskie told federal officials that his wife would be working as a communications consultant for political campaigns “advising on digital ad placements and misc(ellaneous) communications.”
In reality, she did not do any of that work, and later refused to sign a backdated contract in spring 2024. Williamson then told McCluskie she would talk to Podesta and “take care of it.”
MacKay did not respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear whether she has retained an attorney.
Olmos, McCluskie’s attorney, said he was not representing MacKay and was not authorized to speak on her behalf.
Company A: Grace Public Affairs
Grace Public Affairs is a lobbying and consulting firm owned by Williamson, which she started after leaving the Brown administration in 2016. When she joined Newsom’s office, she said at the time she would sever ties to her firm.
After leaving Newsom’s office at the end of 2024, she continued to consult through Grace Public Affairs for clients into 2025, including the California Chamber of Commerce, which paid her nearly $129,000 through 2025, according to state records.
CalChamber spokesperson John Myers said in an email she was paid for “public affairs work on a variety of policy issues of interest to California’s business community.”
Past filings showed she represented Campbell’s firm, Campbell Strategy and Advocacy, and the Last Prisoner Project, New Approach Advocacy, Recidiviz, the Reform Action Fund and the Tides Center.
Company B: The Podesta Company
The Podesta Company, a public affairs and consulting firm run by Alexis Podesta, lists a raft of government clients on its website, including the Department of Consumer Affairs, California Housing Finance Agency, Alcoholic Beverage Control and more.
Court documents suggest she also had corporate clients, including an unnamed company that was facing litigation with the state at the time of the FBI investigation.
Prosecutors accused Williamson of sharing government information about that company, which she and Podesta both had ties to, with Podesta while Williamson was Newsom’s chief of staff and the company was in active litigation with the state.
The Podesta Company is not named in the indictment, but according to prosecutors, Podesta continued to bill Becerra’s campaign finance account via her firm for $10,000 monthly consultant services on instruction from Williamson.
Company C: The Collaborative
The indictment lists a company that was a “hub for public affairs, campaign, crisis management, communications and lobbying firms in California,” of which Campbell is listed as a founding member.
That corresponds to The Collaborative, which also lists Williamson as a fellow founding member and Podesta as managing director on its since-deleted website. The Collaborative started in September 2020 as an alliance among advisers with ties to top California Democrats to share clients.
According to a statement of facts included with Campbell’s plea, Williamson started funnelling $10,000 per month to The Collaborative’s account, which was under Campbell’s control. Campbell would then send the money to a third-party payroll provider disguised as payments to McCluskie’s wife, and the payroll provider would then transfer the money to an account belonging to McCluskie.
Company D: Campbell Strategy & Advocacy
Greg Campbell established his lobbying and consulting firm after leaving the California Assembly in 2015.
Its client list filed with the Secretary of State’s office includes powerful companies including Amazon and TikTok, Major League Baseball and California’s four MLB teams, labor unions, the California Apartment Association, DraftKings and others.
The company is not named or accused of wrongdoing in the indictment.
As a result of the investigation, the city of Fresno announced Wednesday it had fired Campbell as its lobbyist.
Public Official 1: Xavier Becerra
Becerra confirmed that he is “Public Official 1” in the indictment against Williamson, making him the target of the bank and wire fraud scheme that Williamson, McCluskie and Campbell are charged with.
Those charges stem from money in a dormant Becerra campaign account – funds left over from his 2018 attorney general campaign – which Williamson and McCluskie used to fraudulently pay McCluskie’s wife through various businesses.
At the end of 2022, Becerra had more than $1.6 million in the account, which he then transferred to a separate account for a potential future campaign as he served in Biden’s cabinet, according to campaign finance records.
In a statement, Becerra called the betrayal of McCluskie, who had worked for him since 2007, a “gut punch” and said he had cooperated with investigators and would continue to do so.
“As California’s former Attorney General, I fully comprehend the importance of allowing this investigation and legal process to run its course through our justice system.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 7:19 PM.
