What the federal investigation of Newsoms means for his ambitions

from Dan WaltersCalMatters

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Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed in a video and a post on social media that the US Department of Justice was investigating him and his wife, terming it a political attack by President Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump isn’t just going after me because of my mean tweets,” Newsom said. “He’s coming after me because I’m considering running for president.

“To get me, he went after my wife,” Newsom continued. His wife, Jennifer Seibel Newsom, who assumed the title of “first partner” after Newsom became governor, issued her own rejoinder, saying, “This is not presidential behavior, and the governor and I will continue to speak truth to power because the American people deserve so much more.”

Although there is no official confirmation, multiple political media have confirmed from unofficial sources that Siebel Newsom Nonprofits inquiry is in progress.

Siebel Newsom is a documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on sexism. Her nonprofit, the Representation Project, advocates for gender equality using her documentaries and pays Siebel Newsom’s for-profit company, Girls Club Entertainment, for the films.

In required disclosures, Newsom has acknowledged raising $4.3 million in donations for another Siebel Newsom organization, the California Partners Project, since 2020.

The right-wing media gleefully celebrated the revelation as support for allegations that Sybell Newsom — and by implication Newsom — benefited financially from contributions that corporate interests made to her activities, some of them so-called “ordered” payments that Newsom requested.

The California Post, an offshoot of the right-leaning New York Post, I wrote a long opinion piece depicting Newsom as having a “long trail of corrupt connections” dating back to his days as mayor of San Francisco.

Meanwhile, media figures who would ordinarily support Newsom acknowledge that fundraising for his wife’s cause has opened the door.

“These donations, known as ‘ordered payments,’ are not illegal in California, but long before Newsom started asking for them, many found them distasteful — with good reason,” Los Angeles Times writes columnist Anita Chabria. “After all, an order is by definition an order, or at least a strong suggestion.”

New York Magazine, in a long piece by former prosecutor Eli Honigcited a list of political enemies that President Trump has sought to smear or prosecute, and concluded that Siebel Newsom’s interconnected nonprofits and charitable contributions are legitimate fodder for official scrutiny.

“The leadership of the Department of Justice has completely disgraced itself, and Trump has earned his status as a permanent suspect in any case that might affect a disadvantaged Democrat,” Honig wrote. “But he’s not always the culprit. And in this case, it appears that neither Governor Newsom nor Siebel Newsom are victims.”

So, that’s hiding. Federal agents are sniffing around, and Newsom decided to launch a preemptive strike, portraying it as an attempt by Trump to damage the governor’s near-certain bid for the White House in 2028.

The situation calls for deconstruction.

The most obvious aspect is that if the investigation was ordered by Trump, it is about the biggest political favor he could have given Newsom.

The California governor rose to the top of the shadow presidential campaign in his self-appointed position as Trump’s fiercest opponent. Being under investigation thus makes him—he certainly hopes—a hero, even a martyr, within the Democratic Party.

Accordingly, Newsom’s political apparatus immediately sent out a plea for donations to help him fight the investigation.

Honig has it right in New York Magazine. Siebel Newsom’s vested payments and tangled array of private entities invite scrutiny. The outcome, if any, could either boost or torpedo Newsom’s presidential ambitions.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.