By admin 
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating him and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, claiming the White House is “abusing the grand jury process” to target him after months of antagonizing President Donald Trump online.
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The White House has not identified a specific allegation, Newsom said, but is instead conducting interviews and requesting records in efforts to identify crimes allegedly committed by the governor.
The governor’s office said federal agents in recent weeks had contacted dozens of his former employees, friends and associates, seeking records and asking to interview them. Last week, Newsom said they contacted Siebel Newsom directly at their home in Marin County.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request seeking confirmation of the probe.
Newsom’s office said neither he nor Siebel Newsom had received subpoenas as of Monday.
“But we’re sure they’re coming,” a spokesperson said. “The governor looks forward to it.”
The investigation appears to focus on Siebel Newsom and was initiated by federal law enforcement in California, according to Newsom aides cited by the New York Times. The Times reported federal investigators contacted employees of several nonprofit organizations with ties to Siebel Newsom.
“There are clearly no boundaries to what Donald Trump will do to get his way or to challenge those who get in his way,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement. “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.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento declined to confirm an investigation “as a matter of policy.”
Previous federal probes
It’s unclear whether the investigation predates Newsom’s election in 2019 or if it is connected to the fraud prosecution into his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson.
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McGregor Scott, Williamson’s attorney, said Monday the DOJ had not contacted him or his client about the investigation into Newsom.
In 2022, the FBI — under the Biden administration — began probing Williamson for shutting down a state sexual harassment case into video game company Activision Blizzard, whom Williamson previously consulted for being hired by Newsom. Williamson pleaded guilty last month to fraud and lying to the FBI; she faces up to 38 years in prison and $1.35 million in fines.
Newsom previously told The Sacramento Bee the FBI had not interviewed him about Williamson’s investigation, nor had he received any notification that agents had surveilled his communications after the FBI intercepted lobbyists’ communications during the Williamson probe.
Investigation efforts intensified, Newsom’s office said, after Todd Blanche became the acting head of the DOJ.
In a video posted to social media, Newsom called President Donald Trump “the most corrupt president in American history” and said he was being targeted because of his potential run for president.
“After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me,” Newsom said in a statement.
Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit ties
In 2021, The Bee reported on ties between a nonprofit run by Seibel Newsom and companies that lobby the governor. Newsom denied a conflict of interest. But the investigation by The Bee found more than $800,000 in donations to the nonprofit, Representation Project, from companies including PG&E, AT&T and Kaiser Permanente.
Those donations have helped fund Siebel Newsom’s six-figure salary at The Representation Project, which she founded to finance her documentary films and promote feminism.
Siebel Newsom also sits on the board of a nonprofit, California Partners Project, which received $175,000 in funding from private industries — solicited by the government in donations referred to as “behested payments.”
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