California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Sunday that the Justice Department is investigating him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, calling it a politically motivated effort to derail a likely 2028 presidential campaign — though reporting suggests the probes originated not from Washington but from local federal prosecutors responding to whistleblower complaints.
“After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate us,” Newsom said in a video posted to X, adding that investigators “have not found a crime — they are simply trying to find one.”
He said he learned just in the last week that the targeting had reached his own home, and that Trump was going after his wife to get to him. The Justice Department has not confirmed or commented on any investigation.
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The full scope of the probes remains unclear. A source told the right-leaning Washington Examiner that multiple investigations are coming out of California — specifically the Eastern District of California, based in Sacramento — and have not been directed by DOJ headquarters, stemming instead from whistleblower complaints and sources within California’s state government. That account has not been corroborated by other outlets.
Two sources told CBS News one probe centers on Siebel Newsom’s taxes. The DOJ’s public integrity section and the Eastern District US attorney’s office in Sacramento have jointly pursued a potential tax fraud probe involving Siebel Newsom dating to early 2025, according to MS Now.
Siebel Newsom is a documentary filmmaker who founded The Representation Project and co-founded California Partners Project, both nonprofits. An adviser to the governor confirmed that federal agents have approached people and groups with ties to both Newsoms, sought records through subpoenas, and conducted interviews.
A second probe traces to Dana Williamson, Newsom’s former chief of staff, who pleaded guilty last month to financial fraud conspiracy, filing a false tax return, and lying to investigators — charges stemming from her alleged role in diverting money from a dormant campaign account belonging to former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra. Becerra was not charged.
Newsom, whose term expires at the end of 2026, is widely expected to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. He has been among the most prominent Democratic critics of the Trump administration, placing himself Monday alongside Tim Walz, Adam Schiff, James Comey, and Jerome Powell on what he described as Trump’s political “hit list.”
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