California Governor Gavin Newsom said that he and his wife are under investigation by the Justice Department, what he called a politically motivated probe at the direction of Donald Trump.
Newsom, who has emerged as one of the president’s most visible foes among Democrats, said that in recent days federal agents “have knocked on the doors of family, friends and former employees, not because they found a crime, because they’re simply trying to find one.”
He said that the agents were “demanding records” and “abusing the grand jury process, digging through years and years of random documents.”
“He isn’t coming after me because of mean tweets, but because I am considering running for president, because he hates that I’ve consistently called him out over and over again for his lies and deceit,” Newsom said in a statement on Monday. ”
The White House referred questions to the Justice Department, which did not immediately return a request for comment.
Newsom said that after calling for his arrest last year, Trump directed the DOJ to investigate him. He expressed particular anger at an investigation of his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, which he said he learned about in the past week.
“If they can’t intimidate me, they’ll go after the mother of our children,” Newsom said. Donald Trump picked the wrong target. We have nothing to hide. His political operatives can take every record and read every page, but they will be looking in the wrong place, because if they really want to find corruption, look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Among other things, Newsom cited Sunday’s event at the White House, a cage fight which was an extravaganza of promotional opportunities for the UFC, with dozens of sponsors displayed on the ring and viewers forced to subscribe to Paramount+ to gain access to the event.
The governor also put the investigation in the context of other DOJ probes of Trump’s political enemies, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and author E. Jean Carroll.
Newsom directed part of his message to Trump. “You can subpoena my records, you can investigate me. You can harass me, put my name on every and any enemies list you have. But leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta.”
More to come.
