Former Health and Human Services chief Xavier Becerra may be surging in the competition for California governor, but his ties to an alleged fraud case are still dogging him.
A longtime aide for Becerra, who’s considered a Democratic frontrunner, pled guilty to charges that he helped illegally funnel campaign cash towards a no-show job for his wife — and the governor hopeful is now facing uncomfortable questions about the bombshell corruption scandal.
According to the feds, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff Dana Williamson plotted with lobbyist Greg Campbell and longtime Becerra aide Sean McCluskie to siphon $225,000 from Becerra’s dormant campaign account for personal use between February 2022 and September 2024.
While McCluskie was Becerra’s chief of staff, Williamson — who also worked on Becerra’s 2018 campaign for attorney general — allegedly funneled $10,000 per month. The funds were routed through multiple business entities and falsely labeled as pay for a “no-show” job that didn’t exist.
Williamson also faces other charges, and Newsom had said he placed her on leave when made aware of a probe. She pleaded not guilty, while Campbell and McCluskie pleaded guilty.
Becerra has repeatedly denied knowledge of the scheme, and has not been accused of wrongdoing.
But his allies’ alleged misdeeds have put an unflattering spotlight on the longtime California pol.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is also running for governor, blasted Becerra online Wednesday morning for what he called a flip-flop on what Becerra knew around the scandal.
“Same politician. Same illegal payments,” said Villaraigosa, who is also a Democrat. “But five months later
Xavier Becerra tells a different story.”
The former mayor shared two clips, put on repeat and dramatically slowed down, where Becerra tells one television station in November that “I was aware of the payments being made.” Then he tells another journalist in April that “I didn’t oversee that part.”
In the November clip shared by Villaraigosa, Becerra said he “had authorized” the payments when approached by advisors and “saw” the payments.
Becerra adviser Michael Bustamante flatly dismissed the attack.
“I’m sure we’re going to see plenty of tweets from Antonio over the next few days as he sits on the couch while the rest of the legitimate candidates are debating on stage,” Bustamante said.
“There is no substance. This is all contrived from a candidate who is probably moments away from exiting,” he added.
A full look at the November interview shows that Becerra said he was misled as to the nature of the payments, which he was told was for account management services. He believed them, he said.
“If you take a look at what campaigns spend, you spend— you have to pay quite a bit of money for compliance purposes, for oversight, for legal fees, for basic management, for filing of your financial disclosure statements, for filing of your tax returns. It’s a lot of activity,” Becerra said.
He was busy working in the Biden administration running the Health and Human Services agency, so “I was told its going to cost us about $10,000— I was told that’s the rate I would have to pay to get someone who could manage that and make sure that I don’t have to worry about it.”
In the new April interview, he clarified he “had no sight on that” as he was busy with HHS. When asked what it says about his judgment to trust McCluskie, he acknowledged, “People make mistakes.”
The California Post reached out to the Becerra campaign for comment.
Becerra had been trailing in the single digits in polls, but after former congressman Eric Swalwell left the race from sexual assault allegations, he has surged to become one of the leading Democrats.
Villaraigosa still polls near the bottom of the field. He is a frequent thorn in Becerra’s side; the former mayor even launched attack ads on Becerra before his rise in the polls.