☕️ SWAMP CRITTERS ☙ Thursday, November 13, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Open season in the swamp: DOJ nets top Dem operatives; Arizona’s Katie Hobbs probed for bribery tied to a grim orphanage; Epstein disclosures loom; DNC staff revolt; another Ivy caves and dumps DEI.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Our essential news roundup includes: it’s open season on swamp creatures, as DOJ sweeps up a conspiracy of top California Democrat political operatives; Arizona governor Katie Hobbs now under investigation for bribery and corruption linked to sordid orphanage; Epstein news flares up, as Democrats try and fail to push another smear hoax and the House prepares to vote on pending bill to compel full DOJ disclosure; DNC finally gets around to ending pandemic remote work rules and workers revolt; and another Ivy League school agrees to dump DEI and meekly get back into the grant handout line.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

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More arrests! You’ll love these latest ones. The Sacramento Bee plastered a tantalizing story with the headline, “Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff arrested in FBI public corruption probe.” Outside the courthouse yesterday afternoon, a reporter asked one arrested staffer what we were all thinking: “Should Governor Gavin Newsom be concerned, Ms. Williamson?”

Dana Williamson, 53, served Governor French Laundry as his chief of staff between 2022 and December 2024. Dana is a quintessential swamp creature. (They caught a whole nest of swamp creatures, in fact.)

Before Newsom, Ms. Williamson had served as a cabinet member and senior advisor to two more Governors, Gray Davis and Jerry Brown. She’s been a “senior aide” to top federal officials, including former Attorney General Xavier Becerra (a current California gubernatorial candidate). She’s helped run some of the highest-profile progressive ballot initiatives in the Golden State.

Insiders called Williamson “Newsom’s political assassin” because she suppressed thorny political situations and manhandled hard-nosed SEIU labor groups at the Capitol. “She loves to play bad cop,” one consultant said. She’s been a bulldog on social media, savaging rivals on her Twitter feed (now defunct).

“Within the governor’s broader orbit,” one Politico article said, “where aides and advisers mostly play nice, Williamson carried many of Newsom’s grudges for him, even as she continued to nurse some of her own.”

“She gives zero f—ks, which is part of what makes her so great,” said Anthony York, Newsom’s former communications director. That quality may come in handy soon. In a June, 2024, text thread from the unsealed indictment, Williamson threatened to retaliate against a private citizen who had sought public records about her:

But Williamson suddenly “stepped down” from her Chief of Staff job last December. At the time, media reported the major shakeup and toppling of a longtime political power broker as a “long-expected” staff shuffle. However, in hindsight, it must have been because someone peached to Williamson or Newsom that she was under DOJ investigation, or was soon likely to be.

🔥 Yesterday, the DOJ arrested three thorny swamp critters, including Williamson, former Becerra chief of staff Sean McCluskie, and political consultant Greg Campbell. McCluskie is a self-described “healthcare expert,” a JD/PhD with degrees from G.W.U. and U. Maryland. He was Chief Deputy Attorney General under Becerra in California, then went to Washington as Becerra’s Chief of Staff during the entire pandemic 2021-2025.

In other words, as HHS Secretary Becerra’s Chief of Staff, McCluskie was probably responsible for 90% of federal covid policy. Unfortunately for Williamson, McCluskie took a plea deal and admitted all the DOJ’s alleged facts.

The third arrestee, Greg Campbell, is a veteran California “political strategist,” with a long history in state policy and politics, tirelessly working to elect Democrat leaders and pass ballot initiatives. In 2015, the San Francisco Chronicle called him “California’s unelected power broker.”

According to court documents, Campbell helped “facilitate the flow of funds” and cover up the fraudulent arrangements designed to benefit McCluskie. Campbell pleaded guilty yesterday, and said he “takes full accountability for his actions and is cooperating fully with the legal process.”

Cooperating fully. That’s bad news for everyone else. “The news today of formal accusations of impropriety by a long-serving trusted advisor are a gut punch,” former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

Also named, but not arrested, was former California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Alexis Podesta, who is also said to be cooperating. I couldn’t confirm whether she’s related to Clinton creature John Podesta or not.

🔥 DOJ accuses the conspirators of siphoning money from dormant campaign accounts and using the money to enrich themselves. The Feds alleged that they: created “no-show” jobs for McCluskie’s wife; falsified documents and contracts to get covid relief (PPP) loans for Williamson’s personal LLC; and filed fraudulent tax returns that claimed over $1 million in personal expenses as business deductions— including luxury handbags (e.g., a $15,353 Chanel purse and a $5,818 Fendi wallet), jewelry, home repairs, private jet travel, super-luxe Mexican vacations ($120K+), and payments to relatives for various flimsy reasons.

In all, Williamson was charged with a whopping 23 counts —not on par with Trump’s 34 counts, but still— including: Conspiracy, Wire and Bank Fraud, Obstruction, False Tax Returns, and False Statements. Here is a link to the DOJ’s indictment.

Reporting from yesterday’s proceedings, the LA Times reported, “Williamson initially remained composed, but could be heard softly crying as the case progressed.”

She pleaded not guilty. (Good luck! Since everyone else is cooperating!) The court ordered a $500,000 bond and required Williamson to surrender her passport. Williamson faces 73 years in prison and very large fines.

🔥 The DOJ’s and FBI Sacramento’s official statements about Dana Williamson’s indictment reference “three years of relentless investigative work,” and stress an ongoing partnership with the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division. The DOJ has not yet closed the case. More defendants or charges are possible as the investigation progresses, which is why the reporter asked Williamson whether Gavin should be worried.

There’s reason to think the Feds have been looking at Newsom. The LA Times reported that Williamson said federal authorities approached her over a year ago seeking help with a probe of the governor. She declined to help.

One suspects that, had Pam Bondi not deleted the DOJ’s “public ethics” office in DC, this case would never have seen the light of day. Media critics laughably cried that closing the office would mean fewer corruption cases, but the opposite seems to be the case. Either way, Dems can’t complain about retaliation, since this investigation began during the Biden Administration.

Wait! There’s more.

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Quid pro quo! Yesterday, the California Globe ran a story headlined, “Arizona Governor Facing Racketeering Probe Runs From the Media.”

CLIP: Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs flees from reporters (0:27).

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is investigating allegations of a “pay-to-play” scheme involving Governor Katie Hobbs (D), her inauguration fund, the Arizona Democratic Party, and a murky NGO called Sunshine Residential Homes.

In December 2022, Sunshine Residential Homes requested but was denied a rate increase under its group foster home grant. Three days after that denial, Sunshine donated $100,000 to Hobbs’s inauguration campaign as a “gold sponsor.” A few months later, the company was blessed with a +60% rate increase worth +$4 million a year— promoting it to highest-paid provider in the system. By a lot.

Sunshine Homes is not particularly. As recently as last Christmas, a diabetic 9-year-old boy died at Sunshine’s group home under troubling circumstances. Sunshine claimed the nine-year-old “refused to take his insulin.” Arizona’s Department of Child Safety issued a licensing violation— a bureaucratic slap on the wrist. Not even time out.

People have questions.

In all, just in the last election cycle, Sunshine paid an even $400K to Hobbs and the Arizona Democrat Party. Multiple sources confirmed that Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, and the Arizona auditor general have opened at least two separate investigations.

It will be hard (but perhaps not impossible) to sweep this under the rug, since the case sits at the intersection of a whole bunch of high-profile issues. Does Governor Hobbs, like Governor Newsom, have reason to be concerned?

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Yesterday morning, I mentioned the Democrats’ Trump-Epstein hoax, and what do you know? It flared up again, uglier than stink on a monkey, only to be squashed by the banana tree of reality. (I know. Sorry.) That was just the sideshow. The bigger news was that Representative Thomas Massie’s long-pending Epstein petition gained the final vote it needed. CNN reported the result in a story headlined, “Johnson says House will vote next week on push to compel DOJ to release all of its Epstein files.”

Brave Thomas Massie will finally get his vote! On the record. And I’ll bet it passes overwhelmingly. In fact, key Trump allies and MAGA stalwarts have already signed Massie’s petition, including Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), and Lauren Boebert (R-Co.).

But let’s reel in our enthusiastic expectations. First of all, James Comer and the House Oversight Committee have already subpoenaed the DOJ’s Epstein file. So that is already ongoing. In fact, yesterday, Oversight released 20,000 new pages of documents obtained from the late sex offender’s estate. I think they’re closing in on having released 100,000 pages in total.

Second, the history of Congress “compelling” the DOJ to disclose stuff is, well, inconclusive. In 2011, Congress tried to compel the DOJ to turn over “Fast and Furious” files. The DOJ resisted, citing privilege and separation of powers. In 2019, Congress tried to compel the DOJ to turn over “Russiagate” documents related to the Mueller investigation. Same thing happened.

So … while Congress can vote for the DOJ to release stuff, it can’t really make the DOJ do anything. If they do, there will be a lot of political pressure, but don’t expect bankers’ boxes to start rolling up to the curb or anything.

Still. There’s a whiff of something different in the air this time. CNN’s article expressed surprise at Johnson’s agreement to hold the vote next week. He could have waited till next year, or at least for seven full days, depending on whose rule interpretation you prefer. But Speaker Johnson said let’s just get on with it: “It’s a totally pointless exercise. We might as well just do it. I mean, they have 218 signatures, that’s fine, we’ll do it.”

Which brings us to the Democrat’s latest Epstein misfire.

🔥 Before she unalived herself this year, Epstein victim Virginia Guiffre was extremely public about her experience. She sued Epstein’s estate, wrote a book, and her deposition transcript has been widely circulated. Virginia’s lawyer once praised Trump as the only involved party who cooperated voluntarily, without even requiring subpoenas.

In her deposition, Virginia repeatedly said Trump never did anything inappropriate that she knew of. “It’s true that he didn’t partake in any sex with us,” she testified, “and it’s not true that he flirted with me. Donald Trump never flirted with me.”

Critically, Virginia had worked for both men. She started at Mar-a-Lago, working for Trump. Then Epstein “stole” her, hiring her away from Trump, starting a sordid trend that appears to have eventually led to Trump throwing Epstein out of his club.

Yesterday, Democrats released an email they claimed “proved” Trump was part of Epstein’s intimates group:

Democrats added the redaction, “VICTIM.” The original email —released unredacted by the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee— did not conceal the name of the “VICTIM.” It was “Virginia.”

In other words, Epstein was talking about the girl who already exculpated the President. The girl who, postmortem, took down Prince Andrew.

The Democrats’ smear attempt spectacularly backfired. When Epstein said, “the dog that hasn’t barked is trump … im 75% there,” he was speculating about being almost fully convinced Trump was cooperating against him with the Palm Beach County Sheriff. As it turned out, Epstein was right. It was Trump.

Virginia was the link. Epstein concluded that Trump was capitalizing on his previous relationship with Virginia— from when they knew each other at Mar-a-Lago. Epstein was suspicious because Trump had visited Virginia, but she failed to “mention” it. Epstein appears to have thought Trump was wearing a wire. (And maybe he was.)

Early in the day, running with the Democrats’ redacted version, corporate media tried to launch a political scud missile at Trump, but it prematurely exploded into infertile embarrassment when the House Oversight Committee promptly published the unredacted email, which provided the missing context.

🔥 Much more interesting were other newly disclosed emails showing anti-Trump reporters, like Michael Wolff (USA Today, Vanity Fair), coordinating Trump attacks with Epstein. Years after Epstein’s first conviction.

Or, just before Epstein’s second arrest in 2017, we see New York Times reporter Landon Thomas prompting the pedophile with a heads-up that a new investigation was underway:

In other words, here we have liberal reporters secretly conspiring with a notorious pedophile and sex-trafficker like close comrades. It’s almost like they never met a well-connected pedophile they didn’t instantly fall in love with.

🔥 Now let’s stitch yesterday’s Epstein news together and see what sort of mittens it makes.

When the House inevitably votes next week to compel the DOJ to release the full Epstein files, and assuming the DOJ fully or even partly complies (why not?) … then what?

Democrats are convinced the files are packed with dirt on President Trump. If so, Trump’s resistance to their release will have been the biggest political miscalculation of all time, since it made the interest in the Epstein materials swell to a fever pitch. If the documents were coming out anyway, he could have released the files on day one, back when Democrats couldn’t care less about Epstein.

Or there isn’t any dirt on Trump … but the files will still be ugly, for a lot of folks other than Trump, including some Republicans. But this way, with Democrats and Republicans voting together to compel the release of the files, Trump can’t be blamed, and Republicans can’t be blamed.

If some billionaire donor or Republican politician gets exposed for island-hopping, it won’t have been Trump’s fault.

We shall see. I’ll update you after next week’s vote.

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LOL. Yesterday, the New York Times ran a heartwarming story headlined, “The D.N.C. Ordered Workers Back to the Office. Its Union Isn’t Pleased.” DC-based Democrats are all still working remotely, for “safety.” They are scared to work together in the office.

“The pandemic is long over,” the Times reported, “but the fight inside the Democratic National Committee over a full-time return to its office has just begun.” They won’t come back easy.

In an all-hands Zoom meeting this week, party chair Ken Martin told DC staff that the fiesta was over. “They are expected to work in person at headquarters five days a week beginning in February,” the article explained, “and if D.N.C. staff members did not like the return-to-work policies, they should consider finding another job elsewhere.”

Ouch.

Workers were shocked and appalled. This is fascism! Local 500 of the Service Employees International Union issued a statement yesterday calling Mr. Martin’s remarks “shocking.” They leaned into the affordability crisis: “this change feels especially callous considering the current economic conditions created by the Trump administration.”

It is obviously Trump’s fault that the DNC team has to put on pants, drive in to work, and punch the time clock. And to think, people call party workers “elites” and mock them as being out of touch. Weird.

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In our final story, the Trump Administration forced another Ivy League school into reluctant compliance. On Friday, the DOJ ran a press release headlined, “The United States Announces Agreement with Cornell University.” More surrendering. TAW.

Cornell’s tariffs, if I can call them that, have been terminated. The deal restored Cornell’s eligibility for future grants, awards and giveaways, as well as previously terminated grants with HHS and other agencies. It also closed all pending investigations into the university’s admissions policies and other potential civil rights violations.

For its part of the agreement, Cornell University will:

• Invest thirty million dollars in new agriculture programs to support American farmers through lower costs and enhanced efficiency.

• Pay another thirty million dollars in fines to the United States over the next three years.

• Train faculty on the DOJ’s “Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination.” (I bet they can’t wait.)

• Conduct annual surveys of Cornell students’ satisfaction.

• Comply with rules related to foreign funding.

• Provide anonymized data proving compliance with race and gender-neutral admissions.

• Each year, the President of Cornell must personally certify, under penalty of perjury, that Cornell is in compliance with all terms of the agreement.

The data will be the key. Some Ivy League professor first dreamed up the idea of “disparate impact” —proving racism through statistics— and now it is boomeranging back to bite them on their racist backsides.

Attorney General Bondi was satisfied. She said in a statement, “Today’s deal illustrates the value of universities working with this administration — we are grateful to Cornell for this agreement.” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said, “this groundbreaking settlement between the United States and Cornell ensures applicants and students will receive fair and equal treatment, and American farmers will have expanded opportunity for agricultural development and productivity.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon was also pleased. She said, “Thanks to this deal with Cornell and the ongoing work of DOJ, HHS, and the team at ED, U.S. universities are refocusing their attention on merit, rigor, and truth seeking – not ideology.”

Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Chalk up another win for President Trump.

Have a terrific Thursday! We’ll be back tomorrow morning for more delicious and informative Coffee & Covid— all the news you actually need but without the media narratives.

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