Sacramento Power Brokers Rally Behind Dana Williamson | The American Spectator

One would think that after the feds nailed former Newsom chief of staff Dana Williamson with myriad charges — including for allegedly siphoning off $225,000 from a campaign account — that her friends in high places would back away from publicly supporting her. One would especially think this to be the case given that two of her co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty. Moreover, the extensive tax fraud allegations against Williamson, which amount to stealing more than $160,000 in taxpayer dollars, read as even more absurd than a crime novel (a $156,302 trip to Mexico and $12,437 Chanel earrings).

And yet several Sacramento power brokers, including some with affiliations with Newsom himself, have publicly come forward to donate to Williamson’s legal fund.

The legal fund doesn’t just proclaim to be helping out a friend in a tough spot. No, it suggests that the prosecution of Williamson is nefarious. This, of course, is an investigation that started in the second year of the Biden administration. (RELATED: Feds Investigated Gavin Newsom During the Biden Administration, Dana Williamson’s Lawyer Alleges)

“Your kind messages — fueled by collective outrage and fierce loyalty — have been invaluable as she fights the legal battle of her life,” says the fundraiser’s description. The fundraiser also claims that Williamson has “received an outpouring of support from friends, family and colleagues across the nation” — in the wake of her arrest, that is.

The man who started this fundraiser is Steven Maviglio, a Sacramento political consultant who has, for the past decade, ranked as among the most influential California politicos. Maviglio paired the launch of the fundraiser with a press tour of sorts to profess his belief that Williamson is (mostly) innocent. (RELATED: Arrest of Newsom’s Ex-Chief of Staff Prompts Allegations of Misconduct Within the Governor’s Office)

“I think when people look at her record, they’ll know most of these charges are false,” Maviglio told KGET.

“She’s brilliant. She knows the rules,” he went on to say. “She knows what ethics are involved. She knows where the boundaries are. She would not have done anything like this because she knows that stuff inside out.”

Then, in a separate interview with Politico, Maviglio criticized uncharged co-conspirator Alexis Podesta for cooperating with federal investigators regarding Williamson’s activities, despite Williamson having been her former mentor. Podesta’s decision to turn on Williamson was “the biggest shock to me, of all,” said Maviglio. He added that Podesta “is where she is because of Dana” and that it “breaks [his] heart to see what’s happened here.” If this doesn’t suggest a political culture in Sacramento in which insiders protect one another as part of a mutually beneficial arrangement, what does?

Maviglio’s fundraiser has encouraged several other Sacramento politicos to be public about their support for Williamson. Mark Krausse, who was appointed by Newsom to the California Public Employment Relations Board during Williamson’s tenure as chief of staff, donated $1,000 alongside a message that read, “We love you, Dana! Anything we can do to help! Krausse family.” Krausse’s appointment offers a $168,000 annual salary for six years. He has long been powerful in Sacramento; he was a lobbyist for Pacific Gas and Electric Company for many years, and his tenure there overlapped with Williamson’s.

Vicki and Christy Barr-Bouma, Sacramento lobbyists, also donated to the fundraiser. Christy Bouma previously held the role of legislative affairs secretary in the Office of the Governor — during Williamson’s tenure as Newsom’s chief of staff. They were joined by former Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker, who sent over $250 for the cause. Donations were also made under the names of Shawnda Westly, a member of California’s State Personnel Board ($500), Nick Hardeman, a California political consultant ($1,000), and Larry Simi, a former executive at Pacific Gas and Electric Company ($500), but whether these people actually made the donations is not confirmed.

Also public in her support for Williamson has been Deborah Hoffman, who was until recently the deputy director of California’s Office of Tax Appeals. She escorted Williamson out of the building after her federal indictment hearing. When Politico questioned the Office of Tax Appeals about Hoffman’s show of support, the office responded that it was Hoffman’s last day in office “as part of her expected retirement.” But Hoffman had just been appointed to the position earlier this year.

All of this public support for Williamson, in spite of the very serious and very extensive charges against her — from people who continue to have lobbying, consulting, or government work, no less — reads as quite strange. Won’t Krausse, for instance, who has a public role, raise questions around himself for publicly supporting a woman facing corruption charges?

The only explanation that makes sense is that Williamson’s conduct doesn’t strike these insiders as particularly shocking. To them, it may not be an aberration at all. Her role in the Activision Blizzard scandal, for example, might simply represent the kind of behavior that has long been tolerated, or even expected, in Sacramento.

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Arrest of Newsom’s Ex-Chief of Staff Prompts Allegations of Misconduct Within the Governor’s Office

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