Gov. Gavin Newsom raised $250K after announcing DOJ probe
Gov. Gavin Newsom raised $250,000 in the two weeks after he announced the Department of Justice was investigating him and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, according to federal campaign filings and his campaign.
The Newsoms announced on June 15 that federal investigators had approached friends and associates as part of a wide-ranging probe into Siebel Newsom’s finances and nonprofits connected to her work as a gender equity advocate and documentary filmmaker.
Hours after his office announced the probe, Newsom sent supporters an email soliciting donations for his Campaign For Democracy political action committee. He said the money would fund his potential legal defense against a “political witch hunt” from federal agents who he said were targeting him “because I am considering running for president.”
Newsom, who has been floated as a presidential contender since his days as mayor of San Francisco, has been more open about his aspirations for higher office after he leaves Sacramento at the end of next January, when his second term ends.
In his fundraising pitch last month, Newsom included himself on a list of prominent Democrats like New York Attorney General Leticia James and former FBI Director James Comey who came under scrutiny after they prosecuted or investigated President Donald Trump.
“Now it’s my turn,” he wrote.
Newsom launched Campaign For Democracy in 2023 as a federal fundraising vehicle to fight “rising authoritarianism” and raise money for Democrats in red states, becoming one of his party’s more high-profile bundlers. He has also used it to boost sales of his own memoir and run ads advocating for abortion access in restrictive states like Alabama.
Campaign For Democracy refers to three interrelated federal funds overseen by longtime Newsom advisors Lindsey Cobia and Ann Patterson. Before the DOJ probe, the funds had a total of $14.4 million on hand, according to April quarterly reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
The three accounts raised a collective $250,000 between June 15 and June 30, according to the most recent FEC reports submitted Wednesday. Most of those donations were small dollar sums of $200 or less.
Newsom’s campaign attributed the push to a single email the governor sent the afternoon of June 15, hours after his office announced the existence of the DOJ probe to the press.
“Raising roughly a quarter of a million dollars from a single email in minutes demonstrates the strength of Governor Newsom’s grassroots network and his ability to quickly mobilize supporters when it matters most,” said spokesperson Izzy Gardon in a statement. “Rather than continue fundraising for himself, the Governor quickly returned his focus to where it belongs in 2026: helping elect strong Democrats in competitive, winnable races across the country. This cycle alone, he’s already raised more than $5 million for candidates, state parties, and Democratic causes — all via his small-donor list.”
Neither he nor Siebel Newsom have received federal subpoenas so far. Earlier this month, he told reporters the probe was “disgraceful” and “purely political.”
A DOJ source close to the investigation said the probe initially stemmed from whistleblower reports submitted to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento after the office charged Dana Williamson, Newsom’s former chief of staff, in a separate corruption investigation.
Bay Area crisis strategist Sam Singer said it was a savvy move for Newsom to get in front of the investigation because it allowed him to frame it as not only an attack on democracy, but also his family, calling it a “high risk, high reward” strategy.
“There’s no downside to what he did,” Singer said. “It’s a smart way to grab attention. He can frame the story as an attack on critics of the Trump administration. ... He was very smart to do what he did. It shows he’s become invincible.”
