Newsom accuses Trump of politically motivated probe into him and wife

Gavin Newsom turned a federal inquiry into a political broadside against Donald Trump, accusing the president of using the Justice Department to target him and his wife in what Newsom cast as retaliation for his national ambitions. The California governor said agents had recently been knocking on doors of family members, friends and former employees, demanding records in a dispute that now reaches beyond one governor’s circle and into the question of whether federal power is being deployed for partisan ends.

The confrontation sharpened an already combustible relationship between Sacramento and Washington. Newsom and Trump have fought for years over climate policy, pipelines, immigration and the deployment of National Guard troops to California last summer, and Trump said in 2025 that he would support Newsom being arrested over alleged obstruction of immigration enforcement in the state. Newsom’s latest accusation made the clash a stress test of institutional norms: if a Justice Department probe into a sitting governor and his spouse was being driven by politics, the usual line between law enforcement and political retribution had been crossed.

The federal inquiry itself remained murky, but the details that surfaced suggested more than a passing dispute. One person familiar with the matter said a probe involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom related to taxes. Separate reporting said investigators may also have been examining the California Partners Project, a nonprofit tied to Siebel Newsom, and state disclosures show Newsom has solicited $4.3 million for the organization since 2020. Newsom’s office said it had seen no written evidence that banking records had been subpoenaed, even as federal investigators were described as contacting family friends and former employees.

The episode also collided with California’s own ethics machinery. The California Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s five-member independent and nonpartisan campaign-ethics watchdog, has already scrutinized Newsom over behested-payment reporting, with one matter alleging 36 late reports and a proposed $31,500 penalty. The commission’s June calendar included behested-payments training and a commission meeting, underscoring how closely California monitors money flows around public officials.

CalMatters reported that at least two criminal investigations had been underway for about a year in the Eastern District of California, originating from whistleblowers and Sacramento sources. One involved Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s taxes, and another involved former chief of staff Dana Williamson, who pleaded guilty in May in a corruption case that did not implicate Newsom. The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but the political stakes were already clear. Trump’s department has also pursued or opened inquiries involving James Comey, Letitia James and John Bolton, and Newsom’s allies saw the latest probe as part of a familiar pattern: a president using federal authority against perceived enemies.