Dana Williamson claims she was only ‘helping a friend’ in $225K fraud scheme as lawyer seeks light sentence

An attorney for Dana Williamson, Gavin Newsom’s ex-aide who pled guilty to her involvement in a $225,000 scheme to steal campaign funds, claims she was only “helping a friend in a hard time” — as the disgraced Sacramento power broker seeks a light sentence for her admitted crimes.

McGregor Scott, Williamson’s defense attorney, said she didn’t hatch the plan to skim thousands from ex-attorney general and Democratic frontrunner for governor Xavier Becerra’s dormant campaign fund into accounts she controlled.

“This idea to take money from the Becerra account originated with Sean McCluskie,” Scott told reporters outside Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento Thursday.

“This was his idea, he chased my client repeatedly,” he added, citing relentless text message and meeting requests about the fraud scheme.

McCluskie’s wife was paid $10,000 per month for a no-show job while her husband was working as chief of staff for Becerra while he was head of Health and Human Services under former President Joe Biden.

McCluskie, who pled guilty in connection with the scheme last year, had complained about needing more money, according to charging documents.

Williamson admitted to counts of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, subscribing to a false tax return and making false statements after she was accused of helping to skim $225,000 from Becerra’s campaign account, falsely claiming lavish personal spending as business expenses and lying to the FBI about passing along proprietary government information to business contacts.

Read Williamson’s plea deal here.

Scott said he plans to argue that Wiliamson’s motives were “altruistic heartrending” in asking the court for a light sentence — claiming she lost money in the fraud and was only “trying to help a friend in a hard time.”

“She was simply trying to help a friend in a pinch as best she could. And I will make that clear,” he added.

Williamson faces a maximum sentence of 38 years in prison plus more than a million dollars in fines, according to the plea deal.

Becerra has repeatedly denied any involvement in the plan to rip off $225,000 from his unused state campaign account.

“Today confirms what I have said from day one: I did nothing wrong. Case closed,” Becerra posted on X Thursday.

Williamson admitted to making “false statements to [Becerra] about the reasonableness and purpose of the charges made to the dormant campaign account,” according to the plea deal.

However, Becerra’s rivals in the governor’s race suggested there could be damning information about Becerra — pointing to comments by Williamson’s attorneys to KCRA confirming the existence of records that show Becerra was aware of the payments.

A US attorney spokesperson said no candidate for governor “has been implicated in any charging document,” the Sacramento Bee reported.