SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 6 (Our California Times) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Donald Trump and the Justice Department are targeting him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, but multiple reports say federal inquiries tied to Newsom’s circle began in California before Trump returned to office.
Newsom called the matter a “fishing expedition” and said Trump had placed him and his wife on a “hit list,” according to his public post and video statement. He said the investigation was politically motivated.
A Justice Department source familiar with the matter said there have been at least two criminal investigations involving people in Newsom’s orbit in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California for about a year. The source said one inquiry involving former Newsom chief of staff Dana Williamson began during the Biden administration.
Other sources familiar with the investigations said they originated in Sacramento and were tied to whistleblower complaints and local complaints, not to Justice Department headquarters in Washington. The accounts differ on whether federal leadership in Washington was involved in starting the inquiries.
Williamson pleaded guilty in May in a corruption case that did not implicate the governor. The reports do not identify the full legal theory behind the other inquiries or say whether Newsom himself is a formal target.
