California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that President Donald Trump's Department of Justice opened an investigation into him and his wife, announcing the development himself in a written statement and an accompanying video. Newsom declared that he and his wife had joined what he called Donald Trump's hit list, and said the president had personally directed his Department of Justice to investigate them. He cast the move as the latest example of the administration turning the machinery of government against its perceived opponents.
At the center of Newsom's account is the assertion that there is no underlying offense. He insisted that investigators have not found a crime and were simply trying to find one. The governor accused the department of demanding records and of abusing the grand jury process, saying its operatives were digging through years and years of random documents in search of wrongdoing that, in his telling, does not exist.
Newsom tied the timing of the investigation directly to his political ambitions. He argued that Trump was not retaliating over what he dismissed as mean tweets, but because he is considering running for president and because, in his words, the president hates that he consistently calls him out over his lies and deceit. He said that after the president had called for his arrest last year, Trump had now directed the Justice Department to investigate him.
The governor framed his case as part of a wider pattern, branding Trump the most corrupt president in American history and accusing him of turning the levers of government into his own personal power ministries to reward cronies and to try to jail his opponents. He said the president's personal attorney now runs the Department of Justice, which he claimed had repeatedly gone after his political enemies, citing figures such as James Comey, Adam Schiff and Tim Walz, as well as a woman whom a jury found Donald Trump had sexually abused.
Newsom reserved his sharpest words for what he described as the investigation reaching his own home. He said that in the past week he had learned the effort had extended to his wife, Jen, whom he called a public servant who has dedicated her life to supporting women and girls. He argued she had done nothing wrong other than having the temerity to advocate for what she believes in, and charged that if they cannot intimidate him, they will go after the mother of his children.
At least one of the investigations stems from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, which covers Sacramento, and is examining the finances and possibly the taxes of the governor's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. It remained unclear whether prosecutors had gathered evidence that would lead them to seek an indictment against Newsom or his wife, and investigators were said to be questioning and subpoenaing people close to the couple as they searched for information that could support potential charges.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter. Jennifer Siebel Newsom issued a statement of her own denying any wrongdoing, echoing her husband's insistence that the family had nothing to hide. The governor framed the inquiries as possibly tied to his weighing a run for president, potentially in 2028, and as part of what he described as a broader campaign of retribution against the president's opponents.
Striking a defiant tone, Newsom said he and his wife had nothing to hide, telling the president's political operatives they could take every record and read every page but would be looking in the wrong place. He vowed to fight what he called Trump's lawlessness and to keep reminding Americans of the corruption he alleged, invoking the warnings of the country's founders as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary.