Dana Williamson, who served as California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff from January 2023 to December 2024, faces a slew of federal charges for fraud, corruption, and obstruction, but none of those charges implicate her for wrongdoing in her capacity as Newsom’s aide. Instead, the charges allege that she stole and deceived outside of her official duties.
That prospect is threatening to rope Newsom’s entire administration into the scandal.
However, speculation is growing that Williamson also acted improperly in office — meaning that wrongdoing was taking place in the governor’s office under Newsom’s watch. That prospect is threatening to rope Newsom’s entire administration into the scandal. (RELATED: Feds Investigated Gavin Newsom During the Biden Administration, Dana Williamson’s Lawyer Alleges)
The possibility stems from the indictment’s seventh false-statement charge, which alleges that Williamson lied to federal investigators by denying that she had shared internal government information about California’s lawsuit against a major video game company. Though unnamed in the indictment, reporting by the Los Angeles Times, Politico, and the Sacramento Bee indicates that the details match the state’s discrimination and sexual harassment case against Activision Blizzard.
Both Williamson and two of her alleged co-conspirators, Greg Campbell and Alexis Podesta, were paid advisers to Activision. In Campbell’s case, the payments stacked up to $240,000 in 2023 and 2024 combined, but the amount is unknown for Williamson.
In December 2023, when Williamson was Newsom’s chief of staff, the state said that it had reached a settlement agreement with Activision for just $54 million. The New York Times called the agreement a “stunning reversal,” as the California Civil Rights Department had originally estimated that Activision’s liability was about $1 billion. “How the state agency went from accusing Activision of fostering a culture in which female employees were ‘subjected to constant sexual harassment’ to withdrawing those claims a couple of years later isn’t clear,” reported the New York Times.
What makes this all look quite fishy is an alleged conversation Williamson had with co-conspirator Alexis Podesta in January 2023. According to the indictment, Williamson told Podesta that she had directed a “high-level attorney” to “move the litigation to a different part of the state government and get it settled.” If Williamson indeed had the power in the Activision case she claimed, then it appears that she succeeded in settling the matter on behalf of her former client — and on seemingly very favorable terms. In addition, Williamson shared information with Podesta in April 2023 about “a state government attorney who had been fired in connection with the litigation,” according to the indictment, suggesting that she was in the know about the case against Activision.
If what the indictment alleges is true, it very much appears that Williamson had both the means and the motive to interfere in the California government’s lawsuit on Activision’s behalf. If she indeed took action, then this case could involve corrupt actions within the Newsom administration. And, even if it is never shown that she interfered in the case on behalf of Activision, the appearance of corruption in Newsom’s office will remain. California’s newspapers are all covering the possibility this week with bated breath.
There is another aspect of the scandal surrounding Activision that traces to before Williamson came into office as Newsom’s chief of staff when she and Campbell were active lobbyists in California.
In 2022, Janette Wipper, the chief counsel for California in the lawsuit against Activision, stepped down from the case and was, just days later, fired by Gavin Newsom. Her deputy, Melanie Proctor, subsequently resigned in protest of what she said was interference by Newsom’s office into the investigation of Activision. Newsom’s office, Proctor alleged, “began to interfere” in the lawsuit against Activision. She said that the governor’s office wanted early notice of legal strategies against Activision and was “mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.” Proctor said in a letter to her colleagues, “As we continued to win in state court, this interference increased, mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.”
In June 2024, Williamson told alleged co-conspirator Podesta that Proctor had filed a public records act request seeking information on how Williamson and others could have affected the Activision case’s outcome.
The FBI documented Williamson as having told Podesta, “I was like I am f**ked if I have to produce all of that. I talk to those assholes all the time.” She explained that Proctor had asked for all of her communications with Campbell. Williamson then added, with regard to Proctor, “Yeah, I know. F**k her. Double f**k her.” Also, when Podesta told Williamson in regard to Proctor and someone she was supposedly working with, “They really don’t know who they are messing with,” Williamson responded, “They really don’t. It’s bad for them.”
At the time that Proctor resigned from office and levied the accusations of interference in the Activision case against the Newsom administration, his communications director, Erin Mellon, said, “Claims of interference by our office are categorically false.”
While numerous media outlets covered the scandal in 2022, they were unsure of the source of Activision’s influence in the Newsom administration apart from donations by a member of its board of directors to Newsom’s 2018 campaign and recall campaign. The Los Angeles Times wrote, for instance, “It’s not clear what might be the basis of Activision’s alleged political influence. The Times was unable to identify any members of Newsom’s administration who have professional ties to the video game company, or vice versa.” With the new information that was unveiled in the indictment, it very much looks like Activision had political influence within the Newsom administration.
Dana Williamson’s lawyer claims that the feds approached her for help in an investigation they were conducting of Gavin Newsom. Could that alleged investigation have had something to do with the Activision case?
Newsom will be made to answer for the scandal soon. After all, it was he who fired Wipper and his administration that settled the suit against Activision.
Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.
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