‘nastier’: Newsom’s Orbit Braces For War With Trump’s Doj

SACRAMENTO, California — Gavin Newsom’s preemptive strike against Justice Department investigations into him and his wife followed his familiar Trump-era playbook. Privately, his team is bracing for a new kind of battle.

Even as the California governor works to maximize the political advantages of being targeted by Donald Trump before a possible presidential run, the consequences of the federal probes are already rippling through his orbit. Law enforcement is looking into his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s taxes and finances, according to a person familiar with the matter, and the nebulous nature of the investigations has prompted some people in Newsom’s circle to contemplate whether they’ll need lawyers in the future.

“There is no war room or panic — just a seriousness and anger at how far they've crossed the line this time,” said a Newsom adviser, who, like others interviewed, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive legal matters. “Something is different about this — nastier.”

A Newsom administration official acknowledged the developments are “creating complications” for the office but added, “it has not caught us by surprise. We have been prepared.”

They’ve been on alert in part because federal investigators have been circling for well over a year. Sacramento was rocked last fall when an investigation that began under President Joe Biden yielded corruption charges against Newsom’s former chief of staff, who later pleaded guilty to passing sensitive information to a former associate and lying about it, among other charges. Newsom has not been implicated in that probe, and his office believes federal investigators in the Trump administration expanded the scope of their efforts after their examination of the former aide, Dana Williamson, did not ensnare the governor.

The governor’s operation has also had a siege mentality since last year’s wildfires in Los Angeles, when the president and his online supporters floated unverified conspiracy theories while the blazes raged. The team has been contingency planning for all types of once-unthinkable legal showdown scenarios, including briefly considering, after the president spoke approvingly of the idea of Newsom’s arrest last summer, what to do if the governor was detained by federal agents. (That possibility has since faded as a serious concern, the official said.)

Newsom’s allies project confidence the current federal scrutiny is simply a retaliatory dirt-digging exercise that will not result in meaningful charges. Still, they see this as a dangerous and disruptive escalation of a rivalry that already has progressed from dueling insults to tangible impacts to the state, including federal funds stripped from its institutions to the National Guard being mobilized, over Newsom’s objections, in Los Angeles last year.

“If the federal government decides to go hunt for facts to make up a case against an individual, it’s like going against 500 or 1,000 law firms and police forces all at once,” said Nathan Ballard, an attorney and political strategist who used to work for Newsom and remains close to the couple.

They’d have to “devote the energy to respond to the questions, the allegations, the interrogations, the depositions — just that process of being prosecuted when you have the unlimited resources of the government against you.”

The situation feels distinct even from other investigations involving people who have faced legal fallout after feuding with the president. While Trump publicly called for the prosecution of enemies such as California Sen. Adam Schiff and former FBI Director James Comey, he has been uncharacteristically silent about any investigation into Newsom. The Department of Justice has not publicly confirmed the existence of the probes.

Information about the nature of the inquiries is sparse and at times contradictory. A person familiar with the investigations said one was into Williamson and possible current staff members, but another person said the matter regarding Williamson was closed after she pleaded guilty last month. Her attorney told POLITICO there was no indication at all that Williamson was under additional scrutiny.

“Investigations into your boss and their family just make it really hard for staff to do their job; the people who often work the hardest all have to get lawyers, which require money, energy and bandwidth,” said a person active in Democratic and California political circles. “It is scary and can feel chilling for many. It is uncharted waters. It feels suppressive and it is a feeling that you never can totally shake.”

Newsom has kept up his planned public appearances, including attending the opening of Barack Obama’s presidential library Thursday. Siebel Newsom has also been on the road in recent days for screenings of her newest documentary and was away from her family on Monday when her husband revealed she was a target of the federal agent’s inquiries. Amy Ziering, a fellow documentary filmmaker who has been in touch with her since the news broke, said her friend seemed positive and not outwardly ruffled by the developments.

“She's handling it with the grace with which I've seen her handle everything,” Ziering said, who pointed to other challenging chapters in Siebel Newsom’s life, including losing her sister as a child — the result of a fatal golf cart accident — and choosing to testify in the rape trial of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

“This is not someone who has not seen storms,” Ziering said.

In recent months, Siebel Newsom has emerged as a recurring target in the conservative social media ecosystem, with clips portraying her as a “woke” elitist often going viral.

The DOJ activity opens up a new line of possible attack. Her involvement with a pair of nonprofits, the California Partners Project and The Representation Project, while serving as first partner has long been portrayed by critics as rife with potential conflicts of interest.

There has not been any public evidence of improper influence or corruption connected with those entities. Still, the news of federal investigators approaching some Newsom associates connected to the nonprofits with ties to the governor and his spouse — including a third organization called the California Protocol Foundation — has revived public scrutiny on Siebel Newsom’s non-governmental work.

Since 2020, Newsom has directed philanthropies and organizations with arms that lobby California, including an influential Native American tribe, to channel more than $4.2 million to the California Partners Project, which his wife co-founded. He did so under California’s policy on behested payments, in which public officials can ask donors to give to third parties — typically charities or government entities. While such donations are legal and publicly reported, they have long fueled negative perceptions that they allow private entities to gain outsize access by writing large checks to curry favor with elected officials. The state’s campaign finance and ethics agency recently fined Newsom $31,500 for failing to disclose 36 behested payments within the 30 day deadline. Trump also promoted coverage of Newsom’s behested payments by a conservative website on Thursday.

The California Partners Project focuses in part on gender equity — a longstanding interest for Siebel Newsom, whose other nonprofit, The Representation Project, has put out multiple films exploring themes of gender and power in society, pairing them with model curricula for students. The governor has repeatedly lauded his spouse’s work in public appearances, often referencing the films by name.

The governor has not directed donations to The Representation Project, but millions of dollars have flowed to the organization in recent years through grants, gifts and fundraising, according to tax forms. Siebel Newsom has drawn a roughly $150,000 annual salary as the group’s founder and chief creative officer; the nonprofit has also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to her production company, Girls Club LLC.

While the group does not have to disclose its donors, a Sacramento Bee investigation found corporations with business before the state regularly cut checks. Its major benefactors in recent years have largely been foundations and wealthy individuals, some of whom also gave to the California Partners Project, according to archived information posted on the Representation Project’s website.

It is not clear if federal investigators are examining the behested payments, Siebel Newsom’s filmmaking work, or something else entirely. Donors to the California Partners Project and staff and board members of the Representation Project did not respond to questions about whether they’d been questioned or approached.

But the Newsom administration believes the federal government is scrutinizing every aspect of the Newsoms’ financial history. Any hint of impropriety or of the governor unduly promoting his spouse, even if it is legal, will likely be vetted by journalists and amplified by critics.

And the attention has resurfaced questions, largely raised by conservatives, about the family’s living expenses and multimillion-dollar real estate transactions. Newsom officials believe the government is also examining the family’s household expenditures.

The last tax return released by Newsom showed the couple paid household staff $288,000 in 2019, largely for childcare. The couple purchased a $9.1 million home in Marin County, an affluent suburb of San Francisco, in 2024.

“She knows she’s going to continue to be collateral,” said an adviser to Siebel Newsom. “That’s one of the things you have to consider when your family is in politics.”

That includes deliberations about Newsom’s possible White House run, the adviser said.

“Right now, they’re truly focused on California,” the adviser said. “It’s a family decision for them, and they’ve got six months left” in the governor’s office.

Others who know the couple say the intensifying fight with Trump is unlikely to change their 2028 calculus.

“At this point, Gavin and Jen have been sitting in the smoking section for a long time,” Ballard said. “This is not going to deter them.”