Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday accused the Justice Department of launching — at President Trump’s request — a baseless and politically motivated investigation into him and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
“After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me,” Newsom said. “And just in the last week, I’ve learned his campaign has reached my own home: To get me, he’s coming after my wife, Jen.”
Newsom adamantly denied any wrongdoing by him or his wife. The White House declined to respond to Newsom’s allegations that Trump was involved in instigating the probes, referring all questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.
A source familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times that there are two federal probes underway, one related to Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, and one related to Siebel Newsom’s taxes.
The source said both investigations have been ongoing for about a year, were launched by federal prosecutors in Sacramento based on information provided by whistleblowers in California, and were not the result of directives out of Washington.
Lauren Horwood, a spokesperson for the office of U.S. Atty. Eric Grant, a Trump appointee who oversees federal prosecutors in Sacramento, said the office “does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.”
Siebel Newsom, in her own statement, said there “are clearly no boundaries to what Donald Trump will do to get his way or to challenge those who get in his way,” and that she and the governor “will continue to speak truth to power.”
Newsom said that in recent days, “federal agents have knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees,” and have been “demanding records,” “digging through years and years of random documents” and “abusing the grand jury process” in a quest to find any kind of wrongdoing by him or his wife. “Not because they found a crime. Because they are simply trying to find one.”
Newsom’s office said previous allegations of wrongdoing by Newsom in his handling of Activision Blizzard Inc., a video game company that Williamson’s consulting company once represented, did not appear to be a focus of the current investigations.
However, Newsom’s office said it had recently become aware of a new flurry of work by federal authorities, including from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service, looking for wrongdoing in the personal affairs of the governor and those close to him, and now suspects federal investigators issued grand jury subpoenas to financial institutions for records from nonprofits and other entities tied to him and Siebel Newsom.
It said neither Newsom nor his wife have been subpoenaed, but that they expect to be. It said that they both release annual reports on their income, assets and any gifts they receive.
A longtime documentary filmmaker, Siebel Newsom in 2011 founded the Representation Project, a nonprofit focused on challenging gender stereotypes. She earned a salary of $161,250 from the nonprofit, according to federal forms filed in 2024, while her film company Girls Club Entertainment LLC was paid $161,250 by it.
The nonprofit has faced criticism for accepting donations from companies, including Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and AT&T, that lobby the governor.
The couple also works with and benefits from the California State Protocol Foundation, a nonprofit created during Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration that pays for events and gubernatorial trips. Similar nonprofits have existed since the 1980s. Siebel Newsom is also behind the California Partners Project, which champions gender equity, but doesn’t receive a salary for that work, according to federal forms.
Newsom’s office said the governor chose to make a public statement about the investigations Monday because he thought it was important to inform the public directly about what he sees as a Trump-directed attack on him and his wife.
In his video address, Newsom alleged that Trump instigated the probes because Newsom is considering running for president in 2028 and routinely calls out Trump’s “lies and deceit.”
“He has turned the levers of government into his own personal power ministries to reward cronies and to try to jail his opponents,” Newsom said.
Newsom cited Justice Department investigations of several other of the president’s political opponents, including Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his hit list,” Newsom said. “And today, I proudly join that list.”
Federal authorities arrested Williamson last year following a three-year-long investigation that began during the Biden administration. She pleaded guilty to three counts last month. She admitted she lied to FBI agents who interviewed her about her role in the state’s handling of alleged sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard Inc., which she had represented as a consultant before joining Newsom’s office.
Williamson’s attorney, McGregor Scott, a former U.S. attorney in Sacramento, told The Times that federal authorities had approached Williamson before her arrest seeking help with an investigation of the governor, and he believed investigators were looking into the governor and Activision.
Williamson’s plea agreement stated that she lied to the FBI when she was interviewed about her role in “passing information to former clients and business partners to give them an advantage in litigation against the state.”
The state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing in 2021 sued Activision Blizzard, which distributes video games such as “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” alleging that company officials discriminated against women, paid them less than men and ignored reports of egregious sexual harassment. Activision officials denied the allegations.
The case again drew national attention the next year when the state lawyer overseeing the case, Janette Wipper, was fired by the Newsom administration, and her chief deputy resigned and alleged that she was doing so to protest alleged interference of Newsom’s office, which it denied.
On Monday, Newsom’s office said it believed federal prosecutors had launched the latest probes after realizing the Activision accusations were bogus, in an attempt to find anything that might stick against the governor or those closest to him.
The investigations mark the latest targeting of prominent Democrats since Trump returned to office. The Justice Department has lost cases brought against James, Comey and Powell.
Schiff has not been charged with a crime, but was accused by the president of mortgage fraud, which he denies. He has denounced Trump for turning the Justice Department into a vehicle for pursuing political vendettas, and on Monday denounced the investigations of Newsom and his wife as more of the same.
“The President’s abuse of the Justice Department continues, with new targets every day,” Schiff posted to X, atop the governor’s video address. “The Governor won’t be silenced. Nor will my Senate colleagues. Nor will I. In the face of vindictive and baseless investigations, we are defiant and unbowed.”
Grant, the top federal prosecutor in Sacramento, was first appointed as an interim leader of the office in August by then-U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, and later reappointed by the district’s panel of judges. Unlike the prosecutors who have gone after other Democrats, he has a decades-long career in the department.
In a March interview, Grant said it was a “very important principle” of his to “prosecute and investigate without fear or favor, and that means without regard to partisan affiliation, without regard to whether the target is rich and powerful, or friend, or a foe of any particular person.”
“So, whatever you read about the rest of the country,” he said, “in the Eastern District of California, that is an important principle to which we adhere, and to which we shall adhere, as long as I hold this office.”
Newsom has built his reputation as a Democratic leader off his antagonistic relationship with Trump, and some experts said the investigations into him and his wife could help him in the 2028 presidential race.
“It’s one of the new laws of politics that Donald Trump has ushered in: Whoever he attacks becomes the tip of the spear, the standard upon which the Democratic Party rallies around,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant. “For the presumed front-runner of the Democratic nomination, there is no bigger gift.”
Within hours, Newsom was fundraising off the probes — asking supporters to help him “fight off this political witch hunt.”
