Newsom says Trump ordered Justice Department investigation into him and wife

Gavin Newsom said federal investigators had reached into his family circle and political orbit as he accused President Donald Trump of ordering a Justice Department probe into him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The California governor said agents had recently knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees, demanded records and used the grand jury process while no one had told him what crime they were looking into.

Newsom said he learned in the past week that the inquiry had reached Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California’s first partner, a public servant and advocate for women and girls. He said the timing of the effort suggested political retaliation because he is considering a run for president. The governor did not identify any alleged misconduct, and the reporting available did not say what, if anything, the Justice Department was investigating.

The governor’s office said associates and former employees had been contacted by federal agents in recent days. That claim widened the stakes beyond Newsom himself and suggested investigators were trying to map the couple’s wider network in California and beyond. The White House referred questions to the Justice Department, which had not immediately commented in the reporting reviewed.

Newsom cast the alleged inquiry as part of a broader campaign against Trump critics, comparing his situation with cases involving James Comey, Jerome Powell, Letitia James, Adam Schiff and Tim Walz. He said he had joined Trump’s list of targets, sharpening the political edge of a dispute that now reaches from Sacramento to Washington.

The confrontation comes as tensions between California and the Trump administration have escalated over election oversight. Federal officials recently opened election-related investigations in California and announced a comprehensive audit of the state’s voter rolls, adding a separate source of friction to Newsom’s claim that federal power is being turned against him.

For now, the central fact is narrower than the rhetoric around it: Newsom says the Justice Department is investigating him and his wife, and the Justice Department has not publicly explained the purpose of any such probe. In the absence of a public rationale, the dispute has become a test of whether federal investigative authority is being used to pressure a prominent political opponent.