Probe Began Under Biden—Newsom Blames Trump

Interior of a circular government chamber with a decorative ceiling and state seal on the floor

Gavin Newsom is turning a federal probe into a political payday, asking donors to fund his $14.5 million war chest while he cries “Trump retaliation” over an investigation that started under Biden.

Story Snapshot

Newsom claims Trump’s Department of Justice is targeting him and his wife in a political “fishing expedition,” but reporting shows the probe began under the Biden administration.
Federal investigators are focused on tax issues and nonprofit money tied to Jennifer Siebel Newsom and a corruption case linked to Newsom’s ex–chief of staff.
Newsom has raised and directed hundreds of millions in behested payments and campaign cash, building a large political war chest while attacking the probe as corrupt.
California’s ethics watchdog has already fined Newsom for late reporting on millions in behested donations, raising fresh questions about transparency and trust.

Newsom’s retaliation story collides with the timeline

Governor Gavin Newsom is telling voters that President Trump’s Justice Department is coming after him and his wife because he might run for president and has criticized Trump online.^[1] He describes federal agents combing through “years and years” of documents and questions this as a political “fishing expedition.”^[1] But detailed reporting shows the investigation was opened in 2025 under President Joe Biden, after whistleblowers went to federal prosecutors in Sacramento, not Washington.^[2] That timing makes a pure Trump-retaliation story hard to square with the facts.^[2]

Newsom has tried to flip the script by filing a Freedom of Information Act request demanding Justice Department communications mentioning him or his wife.^[1]^[3] His office says this request seeks “any and all records” of what it calls a politically motivated fishing expedition.^[3] The move serves two purposes. It paints him as a victim of “weaponization” for his national audience, and it gives him a new rallying cry to raise money and keep loyal donors close. So far, the Department of Justice has not publicly confirmed or denied many details of the probe, leaving room for spin on both sides.^[2]

What federal investigators are really looking at

Sources familiar with the investigation say the central focus is tax conduct and nonprofit finances tied to First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom, not Gavin Newsom’s tweets or hints about a 2028 presidential run.^[2]^[3] One track involves allegations that her nonprofit operations may have mixed donor money, production work, and personal benefit in ways that raise tax and conflict-of-interest questions.^[3] Another track stems from the separate bank and wire fraud case against Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, who was indicted over schemes involving campaign funds and lavish personal spending.^[5]

Investigators have reportedly interviewed friends and associates of the Newsoms and issued subpoenas to financial institutions for bank records.^[2] Those questions center on Siebel Newsom’s role in nonprofit entities, including groups tied to documentary projects and equity causes.^[2]^[3] While no charges have been filed against the governor himself, the federal attention signals that prosecutors are taking the financial trail seriously. Newsom’s insistence that agents are simply hunting for a crime clashes with this more detailed description of a standard tax and fraud probe driven by whistleblower complaints.^[2]

Behested payments and a growing money trail

The investigation lands on top of a long record of Gavin Newsom using “behested payments,” where he asks companies and wealthy donors to give large sums to favored nonprofits and causes.^[3] Reporting shows he has directed more than $4.4 million to the California Partners Project, a nonprofit founded by his wife that focuses on gender issues.^[1] Other accounts put his behested solicitations at roughly $340 million since he first ran statewide, much of it from special interests with state business.^[3]^[4] That creates an obvious concern about pay-to-play politics and influence.

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, the state ethics watchdog, recently fined Newsom $31,500 for failing to promptly report 36 behested donations totaling $5.5 million.^[6]^[8] Most of those late reports were tied to wildfire recovery, but regulators stressed that timely disclosure is the law, not a suggestion.^[6] Newsom’s team blamed paperwork delays, yet the fine came just as he publicly revealed the separate federal probe. For everyday taxpayers who must follow rules to the letter, a governor who bends reporting laws while moving millions around nonprofits looks less like a victim and more like a powerful player who finally faces scrutiny.^[6]

From recall fight to a fresh $14.5M war chest

Newsom has shown before that he can turn political trouble into cash. During the 2021 recall fight, wealthy donors helped him raise more than $13 million in only three months to protect his job, far outpacing opponents.^[7] Now he is again leaning on national anger and fear, using the “weaponization” label to animate supporters, claim martyr status, and build a fresh war chest reported around $14.5 million for future battles. He presents the Justice Department probe as proof that Trump and his allies are trying to silence him.^[1]^[3]

For conservative readers, the pattern is familiar. A Democratic governor who spent years backing soft-on-crime policies, pushing progressive agendas, and presiding over high taxes and energy costs now calls basic accountability “corruption” when it lands on his doorstep. The law should not care about party labels. If whistleblowers and bank records show donor money washing through family nonprofits, that deserves a clean, fair look. The bigger danger to the republic is not investigation, but a political class that treats any scrutiny as an attack to be monetized.