Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was arrested and charged with numerous counts of law-breaking,.Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was arrested and charged with numerous counts of law-breaking, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, falsifying her tax returns (to the tune of stealing $160,201 from taxpayers), and obstruction of justice. Williamson was employed as Newsom’s…
Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was arrested and charged with numerous counts of law-breaking, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, falsifying her tax returns (to the tune of stealing $160,201 from taxpayers), and obstruction of justice.
Williamson was employed as Newsom’s chief of staff from January 2023 until November 2024, at which point she stepped down upon notifying the administration that she faced a federal investigation.
The charges are quite serious: It is alleged that Williamson directed $225,000 from a campaign fund belonging to Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general and former U.S. secretary of health and human services, to her friend Sean McCluskie by way of payments to McCluskie’s stay-at-home wife. The payments were made under the pretense that his wife was performing political consulting work.
Here’s where that gets especially problematic: At the time, McCluskie was a high-ranking federal official, as he was serving as chief of staff to Becerra, who was then the U.S. secretary of health and human services. That means McCluskie — and, by extension, Becerra — are tainted by what could have been a bribe paid out to McCluskie every single month. Many of these payments were delivered when Williamson was employed as Newsom’s chief of staff. (Upon becoming Newsom’s chief of staff, Williamson brought someone else into the conspiracy to conceal the payments for her, but she remained active in directing the scheme and covering it up, according to the indictment.)
There are plenty of ways in which the $225,000 could have influenced McCluskie to treat the Newsom administration preferentially.
There are plenty of ways in which the $225,000 could have influenced McCluskie to treat the Newsom administration preferentially. For example, HHS has control over health grant programs as well as the dispersal of Medicaid waivers.
In fact, HHS under the Biden administration was highly accommodating of the Newsom administration’s desire to use Medicaid to pay for what could generously be called “nontraditional health care services.” California used waivers received under the Biden administration to direct Medicaid funds toward housing and food for those experiencing poverty. The Trump administration appears to be less accommodating of such permissions.
Whether McCluskie made any decisions in Newsom’s favor as a result of getting hundreds of thousands of dollars via his chief of staff is less clear.
