Alexis Podesta, a 45-year-old Democratic power broker and longtime ally of California Governor Gavin Newsom, began secretly recording conversations for the FBI in June 2024. She was wired up and walking through the governor's political orbit for months before anyone knew the feds were listening.
Newsom, of course, is the guy who wants to be president in 2028.
The revelation comes from MacGregor Scott, the attorney for Newsom's former chief of staff Dana Williamson, who told the New York Post bluntly: "Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not." Scott, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, confirmed the FBI had turned one of Sacramento's most connected insiders into an informant — and aimed her directly at the governor's inner circle.
The corruption probe started with Williamson, 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. Federal prosecutors alleged Williamson and others orchestrated a scheme to siphon roughly $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to Xavier Becerra — California's former Attorney General and former Biden administration HHS Secretary. Podesta was named as co-conspirator 2 in the indictment. She had taken over Williamson's book of business, including the Becerra account, when Williamson went to work for Newsom.
The timeline matters. Podesta and Williamson's professional relationship stretched back nearly two decades. And despite being named a co-conspirator, Podesta still sits on California's State Compensation Insurance Fund board — a position Newsom appointed her to in January 2020 — collecting annual compensation of nearly $61,000.
Then the probe expanded. Last month, Newsom announced that federal agents had contacted people and organizations close to both him and his wife, Jennifer Newsom. The investigation now includes Jennifer Newsom's taxes. The governor was livid.
He was also, according to reports, soliciting PAC donations to help with his legal expenses — within hours of making that announcement.
Republican Assemblymember Josh Hoover revealed he received an FBI notification letter stating that "some of the communications intercepted during the course of the investigation were from a phone number believed to be associated with you." Hoover wasn't alone. Multiple Sacramento lobbyists and officials got similar letters — meaning the wire Podesta wore captured conversations well beyond the Williamson fraud case, across Sacramento's broader political world.
The investigation originated from the FBI's Sacramento field office, not DOJ headquarters — a detail that undercuts any future Newsom claim that this is a politically motivated hit job from Washington. Local agents built this case. Local whistleblowers participated.
Newsom's defenders will say he hasn't been charged with anything. That's true. But the FBI doesn't wire up your friends and surveil your wife's finances because they're bored. They don't send notification letters to a sitting assemblymember's phone number because they stumbled onto a parking ticket.
The man who spent years cultivating a presidential image — the hair, the wine country mansion, the carefully staged opposition to everything Republican — now has federal agents recording the people closest to him. His own appointee was the one holding the microphone.
That's not a campaign obstacle. That's a campaign autopsy.
