California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that President Donald Trump is using the Justice Department to target him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, accusing Trump of escalating a feud with one of his most visible Democratic critics.
Newsom said federal agents have contacted family friends and former employees in recent days, demanding records and “digging through years and years of random documents.” He said the investigation, which does not appear to have a specific focus, has also reached his wife.
“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets,” Newsom said in a video statement. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for president.”
Newsom added that he believes agents are using the grand jury process to search for a crime, not investigate one they had already found.
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The Justice Department declined to comment.
Newsom framed the investigation as part of a broader effort by Trump to use the federal government against political opponents. He cited former FBI director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as others Trump has targeted.
“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.”
Newsom and Trump have sparred publicly for months, with Newsom frequently attacking Trump online and positioning himself as one of the Democratic Party’s most aggressive Trump critics.
“You can subpoena my records. You can investigate me. You can harass me. Put my name on every and any enemy’s list you have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta.” Newsom said.
Newsom’s office said in an emailed statement that the probe was a baseless effort to unearth criminal misconduct by the governor after a prosecution of his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, turned up none.
Williamson pleaded guilty in May to three felonies, including lying to the FBI, in a corruption case involving an alleged scheme to steal campaign money from former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra. Newsom was not implicated.
Williamson’s lawyer said last year that investigators had contacted her about a separate investigation into Newsom. Williamson told them she had not seen misconduct by the governor, her lawyer said in aninterview with the news outlet KCRA in Sacramento.
In recent weeks, federal investigators have sought records and interviews from people in Newsom’s orbit related to organizations connected to Newsom and his wife, according to the governor’s office.
Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker, founded the Representation Project, a nonprofit focused on gender equity that has financed some of her films. TheSacramento Bee reported in 2021 that the nonprofit received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from companies that lobbied the state government while Newsom was serving as lieutenant governor and running for governor. The donations were permissible under state law, and the Representation Project said at the time that Siebel Newsom had not handled fundraising since 2015.
Siebel Newsom is also the founder of a production company called Girls Club Entertainment LLC and co-founder of the nonprofit California Partners Project, which advocates for gender pay equity, child welfare, and more representation of women on corporate boards.
California Partners Project has received donations from companies and organizations in the state, including some that were solicited by the governor himself. Charitable donations requested by government officials are known under California law as “behested payments,” and officials are required to disclose them.
Democrats and at least one Republican on Capitol Hill, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), expressed skepticism about the probe Monday.
“It’s got to have a solid case,” Tillis told reporters. “I think [Joe] Biden lit this candle … The last thing we want to do is perpetuate it. That makes us no better than the very people we’re trying to criticize.”
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