Dozens within Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration were notified in recent days that the FBI had tapped their phones as part of a widening statehouse corruption investigation, according to several news reports.
The news comes after California’s political class was rocked by one of the biggest scandals to hit Sacramento in years, with Newsom’s former chief of staff indicted on 23 felony charges.
The FBI letters have rattled top elected officials, government aides and lobbyists, many of whom are now questioning how far the federal probe will go.
Letters were sent by the FBI under the 1968 Federal Wiretap Act, which mandates the government to notify people whose private communications have been captured on federal wiretaps.
“People are on edge,” Rob Stutzman, a veteran Republican strategist who did not receive a letter and was not involved in the case, told The New York Times. “There’s a lot of wondering if this is all there is to it.”
At a conference in Maui last week, several attendees said lobbyists were trying to figure out why they had — or had not — received an FBI letter, the NYT reported.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office told the Los Angeles Times that Newsom did not receive a letter.
The letters, dated last week and signed by FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Siddhartha Patel, informed recipients that their communications had been “intercepted” as part of the bureau’s conspiracy case against three top political aides.
The LA Times received copies of the letter by sources who asked to remain anonymous.
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“This letter does not necessarily mean you were the target of the investigation or that any criminal action will be taken against you,” Patel wrote. “Rather, the purpose of this letter is to notify you that some of your communications may have been intercepted during the course of the investigation.”
Prosecutors allege Greg Campbell, Dana Williamson and Sean McCluskie stole campaign funds from Xavier Becerra, the former state attorney general and current Biden cabinet secretary now running for governor in 2026.
Williamson, who is Newsom’s former chief of staff, was indicted last week on 23 felony charges that accuse her of siphoning $225,000 in funds from Becerra’s state campaign account. None of the charging documents released in the cases against the three aids mention the governor.
Prosecutors say she spent $1 million on luxury handbags and high-end travel and then falsely wrote them off as business expenses on her tax returns.
According to the indictment, Williamson teamed up with Becerra’s ex-chief of staff McCluskie and lobbyist Campbell to skim a dormant account belonging to Becerra.
Williamson, who served as Newsom’s chief of staff from 2022 to 2024, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Neither Newsom or Becerra have been charged in connection with the case.