A former top aide to Xavier Becerra, Dana Williamson, pleaded guilty in federal court after a scheme involving campaign funds and a nonexistent job.
Sitting in a federal courtroom in downtown Sacramento. Dana Williamson looked stunned as she pleaded guilty three times. acknowledging a fraud scheme that she now says she participated in.. Her sentencing is not expected until fall. potentially around the general election season. but the immediate consequence was already clear: she is facing the possibility of more than three years in prison.
Williamson’s plea is the latest turn in a financial scandal that has swirled around California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra.. Court filings and statements in court portray her not as a distant consultant. but as a political operative and Capitol power broker known for getting things done through deep relationships and expertise in the machinery of California politics.
For supporters and critics alike, the guilty plea has raised a basic question that has not gone away: if the conduct was wrong, why did it run so long, and what did Becerra know?
The backstory. as laid out in court documents. centers on Sean McCluskie. a close aide to Becerra who moved to Washington after Becerra’s work with President Joe Biden’s administration.. McCluskie took a pay cut to remain on the team. according to court materials. and then asked Williamson to receive money from Becerra’s dormant campaign account.
That was a line Becerra legally could not cross while holding federal office. The plan described in court papers involved passing the money through multiple other accounts before sending it to McCluskie’s wife as payment for a nonexistent job.
Williamson’s attorney, McGregor Scott, told the court Thursday that Williamson received $7,500 each month from the Becerra account and added an additional $2,500 from her own funds before forwarding the total to ultimately reach McCluskie. Scott said that made the monthly payment $10,000.
Scott, speaking after court, said McCluskie was “living on a government salary,” and that his wife was home with their children. He said the scheme originated from financial pressure, with Williamson trying to help a friend.
Scott, a former U.S.. attorney who previously worked in the Bush and Trump administrations, succeeded in narrowing what prosecutors had originally charged.. He said Williamson’s initial 23-count indictment was reduced. including allegations tied to the Becerra account. as well as claims involving lying to the FBI and filing a false tax return.
McCluskie has already pleaded guilty. He entered his plea last November and is scheduled to be sentenced in June, along with a third lobbyist involved in the case.
Becerra, meanwhile, has occupied an unusual role in the proceedings.. Court documents describe his state campaign bank account as the target of the scheme. but there has been no indication that investigators pursued Becerra personally as a participant.. Becerra has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has framed the affair as a betrayal by advisors.
His campaign’s opponents, however, have seized on the case. In a post on social media Thursday, Becerra said his opponents have spent millions “spreading lies to purposefully mislead voters.” He wrote: “Today confirms what I have said from day one: I did nothing wrong. Case closed.”
Scott said Williamson’s understanding of what was happening was shaped by conversations with McCluskie.. He said Williamson assumed McCluskie had spoken to Becerra about the concept of the money transfer.. The court records include text messages that Scott characterized as brief and ambiguous between McCluskie and Williamson, supporting that account.
Scott also said Williamson never spoke directly with Becerra about the scheme.
That leaves room for two competing interpretations, both uncomfortable in different ways. Scott’s account suggests Williamson believed Becerra was in the loop. Becerra’s own repeated statements suggest he was not.
Becerra has said he believed the $10. 000-a-month payment was a legitimate fee tied to managing funds in the dormant account while he could not legally handle it.. Scott noted that the amount was higher than what he described as typical for that type of work. echoing concerns that have circulated in the public debate.
Still, Scott said Williamson’s plea is not an attempt to shift blame. “I’m not trying to paint my client as a victim,” he said. “She’s accepted responsibility today for what she did by pleading guilty. She’s now a felon. So you know, we’re not trying to do anything to dance away from that.”
Even so. the questions that follow from the plea are likely to persist. particularly if Becerra advances beyond California’s primary and remains on track for governor.. Williamson’s legal jeopardy is not the same as political clarity.. A guilty plea. by itself. does not resolve what Becerra did or did not know. or what checks might have failed between a trusted aide and the candidate whose account was involved.
At the center of the case is a choice point: either McCluskie devised a scheme that induced Becerra and Williamson to believe separate versions of the truth, or someone involved was not being fully honest. Scott suggested Williamson was proceeding based on what McCluskie conveyed.
But Becerra’s own “case closed” refrain offers less than an explanation of the red flags that. as Scott noted. might have mattered to a longtime lawyer and political operator.. If an account with minimal activity was costing so much, why did that escape scrutiny?. If payments were flowing through multiple steps to reach McCluskie’s wife for a job that did not exist. how did that fit Becerra’s understanding of the arrangement?
For now, Williamson has stopped contesting what she did in court, taking responsibility through the plea. The political fight over what it means for Becerra, though, is likely to continue long after the courtroom steps cleared.
Dana Williamson Xavier Becerra federal fraud case Sacramento courtroom California governor Sean McCluskie
so she just admitted it like that wow
I dont even know who Becerra is but if his own people are out here committing fraud then that tells you everything you need to know about California politics in general. this stuff has been going on forever out there and nobody ever goes to jail for real anyway so lets see what actually happens.
wait i thought Becerra was already the governor?? why is it saying he is a candidate, did he get removed or something. either way this is what happens when you let these people run unchecked for years and nobody in the media says anything until its too late. three years is nothing for fraud that big and she will probably get even less when all is said and done. my cousin got more time for way less and he wasnt even a political insider or whatever they call it.
fake job scam with campaign money and the sentencing isnt until fall, which is right around the election, feels like the timing is very convenient for someone