From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

Federal agents have questioned friends and associates of Gov. Gavin
Newsom of California and his wife, Mr. Newsom said on Monday in a video
in which he accused President Trump of using the Justice Department to
punish a political enemy.

The full scope of any investigation remains unclear. But Mr. NewsomrCOs
aides say part of the federal investigation appears to focus on his
wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Former employees of the governor and
people affiliated with his wiferCOs nonprofit groups are among those who
have been questioned by agents, according to the governorrCOs office.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed that multiple federal investigations were underway related to the governor, including one
looking at his wiferCOs finances. But the person disputed Mr. NewsomrCOs assertion that the investigations were politically motivated, and said
they had been initiated by federal law enforcement officials in
California, not launched by officials in Washington. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it
publicly.

Mr. Newsom, a Democrat who is widely seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, the last year of Mr. TrumprCOs term,
described the investigation as a fishing expedition in which federal
agents had started sifting through rCLyears and years of random documentsrCY and knocking on the doors of family friends and associates of the
Newsoms to try to find evidence of an unspecified crime.

rCLDonald Trump isnrCOt just coming after me because of my mean tweets,rCY Mr. Newsom said in the video. rCLHerCOs coming after me because I am considering running for president.rCY He added, rCLTo get me, herCOs coming after my wife.rCY

Several people associated with the Newsoms have been contacted by
federal agents in the past week, according to the governorrCOs office. Mr. NewsomrCOs aides believe the agents have also subpoenaed banking records,
but said they had seen no written evidence of that.

An F.B.I. spokesman and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to
comment. A White House official referred all questions to the Justice Department.

Ms. Siebel Newsom said Mr. Trump would stop at nothing to try to punish
those who stand up to him.

rCLThis is not presidential behavior, and the Governor and I will continue
to speak truth to power because the American people deserve so much
more,rCY she said in a statement.

Ms. Siebel Newsom, who calls herself CaliforniarCOs first partner, is a documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on the social impacts of
sexism. She founded a nonprofit organization called the Representation
Project that advocates for gender equity, in part by developing
educational materials based on Ms. Siebel NewsomrCOs documentaries.

Ms. Siebel Newsom also owns a film production company called Girls Club Entertainment. It is listed as a contractor of the Representation
Project on the nonprofitrCOs tax returns. Tax records show that the Representation Project makes annual payments to Girls Club
Entertainment. In 2024, the nonprofit paid Girls Club Entertainment
$161,250 for film production work.

Ms. Siebel Newsom is also a co-founder of the California Partners
Project, a nonprofit that works to get more women onto corporate boards, address the gender pay gap and make technology safer for children. Some
of the donors that support the California Partners Project are groups
with business before the state government.

For years, critics have raised the possibility of self-dealing, but no
public evidence of wrongdoing by any of the entities tied to Ms. Siebel
Newsom has surfaced, and it remains unclear what precise issues and
actions investigators have been asking questions about.

Mr. Newsom has reported soliciting $4.3 million in donations to the
California Partners Project since 2020, according to disclosures filed
with the staterCOs ethics agency. That includes $1.8 million from a Native American tribe that has an agreement with the state to operate a casino
in Sonoma County. In California, public officials must disclose
donations to charities that are made at the officialrCOs request.

Another nonprofit group with ties to Mr. Newsom is called the California Protocol Foundation. Its board includes some of Mr. NewsomrCOs top
advisers during his time as governor and previously as the mayor of San Francisco. The foundation pays for initiatives that the governor says he
does not want state taxpayers to cover, including his travel overseas
for conferences and other meetings.

Mr. NewsomrCOs office said the investigation is a fresh attempt to smear
him after the federal prosecution of his former chief of staff revealed
no misconduct by the governor. The former chief of staff, Dana
Williamson, pleaded guilty last month to three felonies in a sprawling corruption case.

One of the crimes Ms. Williamson pleaded guilty to was lying to the
F.B.I. about information she had access to while working in Mr. NewsomrCOs office. In her plea agreement, Ms. Williamson said she gave her former
business partner confidential information about state litigation that
involved one of their clients and then lied about it when questioned by
the F.B.I.

The agreement does not name the client, but details in the indictment
align with a sex-discrimination lawsuit that California regulators filed
in 2021 against the video game maker Activision Blizzard. The company
had been a client of Ms. WilliamsonrCOs consulting business before she
joined Mr. NewsomrCOs office. In 2022, Mr. Newsom fired the state lawyer leading the suit against Activision, prompting complaints that he was interfering.

When Ms. Williamson was indicted last year, her attorney said that
federal agents first approached her during the Biden administration. She
was working for Mr. Newsom at the time, and the agents asked her if she
would cooperate in an investigation of the governor. She replied that
she had no information to give them because she had never witnessed any criminal conduct by Mr. Newsom.

Earlier this year, Mr. NewsomrCOs office responded to questions from Mr. TrumprCOs Justice Department about his 2022 termination of the lawyer
involved in the Activision lawsuit, according to a spokesman for Mr.
Newsom. Then the communication from federal officials ceased, the
spokesman said.

The latest inquiries into associates of Mr. Newsom and Ms. Siebel Newsom
began around the time Mr. Trump said that he planned to nominate Todd
Blanche as attorney general, according to the governorrCOs office.

Mr. Blanche had previously defended Mr. Trump in three of the four
criminal cases he was facing.

Nominated to be the No. 2 official at the Justice Department at the
beginning of Mr. TrumprCOs second term, Mr. Blanche rCo now the acting
attorney general rCo has pursued prosecutions of Mr. TrumprCOs perceived enemies. He also signed an agreement granting the president and his
companies immunity from audits of past tax returns to settle a $10
billion lawsuit the president brought against his own government earlier
this year.

Mr. Newsom has been highly critical of Mr. BlancherCOs nomination to the
top Justice Department position, recently calling Mr. Blanche rCLthe guy covering up the Epstein FilesrCY and saying he rCLgave Trump and his family
a lifetime pass to commit tax crimes.rCY

Mr. Newsom, in his video address, mentioned that Mr. Trump had called
for his arrest last year and he said he was proud to join the rCLhit listrCY
of people standing up to the president. Among the wide range of
Democrats who Mr. Trump has aggressively targeted is Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat from Arizona, for saying that members of the military should
not follow illegal orders from the president. Mr. Kelly is also a
potential 2028 presidential candidate in a Democratic primary.

In the governorrCOs video, Mr. Newsom accused Mr. Trump of rCLselling the presidencyrCY for golf course approvals, cryptocurrencies and a private
jet, and pledged to continue calling out what he saw as corruption from
the White House.

rCLYou can subpoena my records. You can investigate me. You can harass
me,rCY Mr. Newsom said. rCLPut my name on every and any enemies list you
have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta.rCY

Hours after posting the video, Mr. Newsom sent out a fund-raising appeal
via email requesting donations to help him pay for lawyers to rCLfight off
this political witch hunt.rCY

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/us/newsom-trump-doj-investigation.html
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