Gavin Newsom Says Trump's Doj Is Investigating Him And His Wife

Gavin Newsom said on Monday that the Trump administration is investigating him and his wife, blasting the president for what he cast as an act of political retribution.

“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets,” Newsom said in remarks posted to X. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for president.”

The California governor’s office said federal agents had reached out to people and entities connected to him and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, including former employees, issuing subpoenas for documents and conducting interviews that spanned years. The governor and his wife have not yet received subpoeanas.

It was not immediately clear what the subject of a potential investigation would be. A Justice Department representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But the federal government has recently reached into Newsom’s inner circle with a corruption investigation that resulted in his former chief of staff pleading guilty to illegally diverting campaign funds and to making false statements about passing confidential information to a former business associate regarding the administration’s pursuit of a settlement with the company Activision.

Newsom has not been implicated in that investigation. The governor's office alleged that the White House pressed for investigators to shift their focus after their probe of the Activision deal foundered.

The governor's office also suggested that the federal government was examining payments to his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom's film production company.

Her California Partners Project, an organization promoting gender equity, has been the beneficiary of a process known as behesting, in which public officials direct private entities and individuals to channel money to philanthropic or nonprofit causes.

Siebel Newsom’s California Partners Project has received around $5.1 million in behested payments since 2020, from donors including the Lisa Stone Pritzker Family Foundation, Native American tribes and Silicon Valley Bank, according to required campaign finance disclosures. Some donations were made through the Central Valley Community Foundation, a philanthropic group based in California’s farm belt.

Newsom argued in his speech that the investigation was an extension of the president’s quest to pursue charges against his political rivals. The two have sparred for years, and their relationship collapsed into acrimony last year after Trump deployed the California National Guard to oversee immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. Trump has embraced the idea of arresting Newsom.

The Democratic governor and likely presidential contender has warned that Trump poses a direct threat to democracy — a theme he hammered during a successful gerrymandering campaign last year. In his speech on Monday, he leaned into a showdown with Trump.

“Mr. President, come after me. I am not going anywhere,” Newsom said. “And the country is watching.”