Newsom claims the DOJ conducted a baseless investigation of him and his wife at the behest of Trump

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday accused the Department of Justice of establishing – at the request of President Trump – an unfounded and politically motivated investigation of him and his wife, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

“After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump ordered his Justice Department to investigate me,” Newsom said. “And last week, I learned that his campaign has come to my house: to get me, he's going after my wife, Jen.”

Newsom has vehemently denied it was him or his wife.

The White House declined to respond to Newsom's allegations that Trump is involved in the investigation, referring all questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.

A source familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss it publicly, told The Times that there are two ongoing investigations, one related to Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, and the other related to Siebel Newsom's taxes.

The source said that both investigations have been ongoing for a year; were initiated by federal prosecutors in Sacramento based on information provided by callers and other local sources in California; and it was not the result of directives from Washington or the White House.

Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the office of US Atty. Eric Grant, Trump's nominee for federal prosecutors in Sacramento, said the office “does not confirm or deny that there is an investigation.”

Siebel Newsom, in her statement, also blamed Trump for starting the investigation.

“There is clearly no limit to what Donald Trump will do to get his way or challenge those who get in his way,” she said. “This is not presidential behavior, and the Governor and I will continue to speak truth to power because the American people deserve so much more.”

Newsom said that in recent days, “federal agents have been knocking on the doors of family friends and former employees,” and “looking for records,” “digging through years and years of random documents” and “abusing the grand jury process” to find any kind of wrongdoing by him or his wife.

“Not because they found a crime, because they are trying to find it,” he said.

Newsom did not describe the specific nature of the alleged probe, the line of questioning friends and employees are facing or the types of records seized or reviewed by federal investigators.

Newsom's office said previous allegations of wrongdoing by Newsom in his handling of Activision Blizzard Inc., the video game company that previously represented Williamson's company, were baseless and unfounded, and do not appear to be the focus of the current investigation.

Newsom's office said the current investigation appears to involve Siebel Newsom's personal affairs, and that donors, business associates and organizations connected to Newsom and his wife have also been contacted.

It said neither Newsom nor his wife had been summoned to court, but they expected it to happen. It said both of them issue annual reports on their income, assets and any gifts they receive.

A longtime documentary filmmaker, Siebel Newsom in 2011 founded the Advocacy Project, a non-profit organization focused on challenging gender stereotypes. He received an estimated $161,000 in income from nonprofits, according to federal forms filed in 2024.

The nonprofit has faced criticism for accepting donations from corporations, including Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and AT&T, which works in state politics and lobbying the governor.

The Representation Project paid $161,250 to Girls Club Entertainment LLC in 2024, according to corporate filings, which is Siebel Newsom's film company.

Siebel Newsom is also behind the California Partners Project that fights for gender equality, but does not receive a salary for that work, according to the organization's filings.

Newsom's office said the governor chose to make a public statement about the investigation Monday because he felt it was important to inform the public directly about what he saw as Trump's attacks on him and his wife.

In his video speech, Newsom alleges that Trump is behind the investigation because Newsom is considering a run for president in 2028, and because Trump “hates that I keep calling him out — over and over again — on his lies and deceit.”

“He turned government officials into his powerhouses to reward his allies and try to imprison his opponents,” Newsom said.

Newsom cited the Justice Department's investigation into several other political opponents of the president, including Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, former FBI director James Comey, former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and former vice president of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his list,” he said. “And today, I proudly join that list.”

Federal authorities arrested Williamson last year following a three-year investigation that began during the Biden administration.

Williamson pleaded guilty to three charges, including lying to authorities, last month. He admitted that he lied to the FBI who interviewed him about his role in the game the status of handling allegations of sexual abuse at Activision Blizzard Inc., which he represented as a consultant before joining Newsom's office as chief of staff.

Williamson's attorney, McGregor Scott, a former US attorney in Sacramento, told The Times that federal authorities are close.
Williamson before his arrest sought help with the governor's own investigation. Scott said it was his belief that investigators were looking at the governor and Activision.

Williamson's plea agreement said he lied to the FBI during an interview about his role in “passing information to former clients and business associates to provide an opportunity for federal prosecution.”

The state Department of Fair Employment and Housing in 2021 sued Working Blizzard, which distributes video games such as “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” alleges that company executives discriminated against women, paid them less than men and ignored reports of serious sexual harassment. Working officials denied the allegations.

The case again drew national attention the following year when the attorney who presided over the case for the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Janette Wipper, was fired by Newsom's administration, and her chief deputy resigned, allegedly in protest of Newsom's office's interference in the investigation. Newsom's office has denied interference.

As Newsom noted, the federal investigation into Newsom and his wife marks the latest targeting of prominent Democrats since Trump's return to office. Several others hail from U.S. attorneys' offices controlled by Trump loyalists — and have had little success in court.

The Justice Department lost the charges against James, Comey and Powell. No charges have been filed against Schiff, despite the president accusing him of committing a crime.

Schiff criticized Trump for turning the Justice Department into a vehicle to pursue his political interests, and on Monday he criticized the investigation of Newsom and his wife as similar.

“The President's abuse of the Justice Department continues, with new targets every day,” Schiff said on X, over the governor's video address. “The Governor will not be silent, nor will our colleagues in the Senate be silent. Neither will I be silent. When we are faced with baseless and unfounded investigations, we are defiant and we will not bow down.”

Grant, a federal prosecutor in Sacramento, was first appointed as the office's interim leader in August by then-Atty. General Pam Bondi, after acting as the US attorney there, Michele Beckwith, said she was fired for telling the Border Patrol chief in charge of immigration raids in California that her agents are not allowed to arrest people without reason in the Central Valley.

When Grant's interim term ended, the district judges voted to re-appoint him, a stark contrast to how the justices have dealt with other controversial Trump appointees.

Unlike inexperienced federal prosecutors involved in other cases against prominent Democrats, Grant has decades of experience in the department.

In the early 1990s, he worked as an attorney-consultant in the Office of Legal Counsel and then, from 2017 to 2021, as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Environmental and Natural Resources Division, where he oversaw more than 100 department prosecutors. He previously served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during the Supreme Court's October 1994 term, according to the Department of Justice.

In a March interview, Grant — who grew up in Modesto and raised his family in Sacramento County — said “it's the most important principle of all federal prosecutors, and certainly mine and my office, to prosecute and investigate without fear or bias, and that means without regard to party affiliation, regardless of whether the target is rich and powerful, or a friend, or an enemy of any person.”

“So, whatever you're reading around the country,” he said, “in the eastern state of California, that's an important principle that we adhere to, and will adhere to, as long as I'm in office.”