The DOJ is investigating Gavin Newsom and his wife. Here’s what to know

Federal investigators are digging into the finances of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The governor calls it a political attack tied to his expected 2028 presidential run. The Trump administration’s Justice Department is probing the Newsoms’ ties to nonprofits, taxes and business dealings going back years.

Siebel Newsom has occupied a higher profile position compared to the spouses of other state leaders. The filmmaker and gender equity advocate has helped shape her husband’s policies on issues like reproductive health, the male loneliness and mental health crisis, school nutrition, and regulating children’s access to social media.

Here are key takeaways:

• The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Siebel Newsom’s taxes and nonprofits connected to her and the governor, with several probes ongoing for about a year that originated from whistleblower complaints to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.
• IRS and FBI agents have approached staff, friends and associates of the Newsoms in recent weeks and obtained their bank records. The Governor’s Office said the probe intensified after Todd Blanche became acting head of the DOJ.
• One of the investigations is connected to Dana Williamson, Newsom’s former chief of staff, who pleaded guilty to fraud and lying to the FBI last month and faces up to 38 years in prison.
• Siebel Newsom earned about $2.3 million from the Representation Project nonprofit between 2011 and 2018. A 2021 Sacramento Bee investigation found more than $800,000 in donations to the nonprofit from companies that lobby the governor, including PG&E, AT&T and Kaiser Permanente.
• Just days before the DOJ probe became public, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission fined Newsom $31,500 for failing to report $5.6 million in charitable donations on time, with most going to the California Fire Foundation during the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Newsom was late filing reports on so-called behested payments 34 times in 2025, and the governor has previously been fined for failing to disclose $14 million in donations made between 2019 and 2024.
• In a video posted to social media, Newsom called Trump “the most corrupt president in American history” and said the White House is “abusing the grand jury process” to target him because he is considering a 2028 presidential run.

The governor’s FPPC fines and Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit ties are just a few controversies amongst a host of other issues the Trump administration may have seized on in its investigation, according to political analyst Dan Schnur, who chaired the Fair Political Practices Commission in 2010.

“Trump’s allies will be able to point to a lot of smoke.” Schnur pointed to the first partner’s role in the Governor’s Office, the amount of money the foundation has raised, the charges faced by Newsom’s former chief of staff.

“The question is whether they have probable cause to believe that there’s fire underneath all that smoke,” Schnur said. “And Newsom and his supporters would argue very strongly that there’s not. And again, getting back to what I said earlier: We just don’t know.”