California Gov. Gavin Newsom went public Monday with a dramatic claim: President Trump, he said, had directed the Department of Justice to investigate him and his wife.

But the update that followed makes the story much bigger than Newsom’s video.

Reporting now points to multiple federal probes around Newsom’s circle, including one related to Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s taxes and another connected to a former Newsom chief of staff that began under Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

Eric Daugherty posted the update with the Newsom video as the story started moving:

Newsom’s office posted an official transcript of his remarks on June 15.

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The Governor of California published Newsom’s accusation this way:

In recent days, federal agents have knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees.

They are demanding records.

They are abusing the grand jury process.

Digging through years and years of random documents.

After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me.

And just in the last week, I’ve learned his campaign has reached my own home: to get me, he’s coming after my wife, Jen.

If they can’t intimidate me, they’ll go after the mother of our children.

Donald Trump picked the wrong target. We have nothing to hide.

His political operatives can take every record and read every page.

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You can subpoena my records.

You can investigate me.

You can harass me.

Put my name on every and any enemy’s list you have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta.

That is the frame Newsom wants voters to see.

The newer reporting adds a major complication.

Fox 11, citing the Associated Press, reported that a person familiar with the matter confirmed multiple federal investigations into people around Newsom, including one related to his wife’s taxes.

That report also said the probes began last year after whistleblower complaints in California government, and that political leadership in Washington was not involved in the decision to open them.

So Newsom’s public message is that President Trump is personally coming for his family.

The reported timeline is not that clean.

The Associated Press also reported that the Dana Williamson-related probe was launched by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

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That matters because Dana Williamson was not a random Sacramento name.

She was Newsom’s former chief of staff.

And unlike the vague political language in Newsom’s video, Williamson’s case already has a guilty plea attached to it.

The U.S. Department of Justice laid out the case in its own May 14 release:

Political consultant Dana Williamson, 53, of Carmichael, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, subscribing to a false tax return, and making false statements to a federal agent, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

“As part of an investigation that began in 2022, Williamson joins the two others who were charged in the ‘Conduit Scheme’ conspiracy in pleading guilty,” said U.S. Attorney Grant.

According to court documents, between February 2022 and September 2024, Williamson conspired with Greg Campbell, 52, of Davis, Sean McCluskie, 57, of Davis, and others to steal approximately $225,000 in funds from a dormant political campaign and funnel it to McCluskie for his personal use.

Collectively, they funneled the money through various business entities and disguised it as pay to McCluskie’s spouse for what was, in reality, a no-show job.

This case is the product of a multiyear investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS Criminal Investigation.

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The DOJ release says the Williamson investigation began in 2022.

That means the case was already moving long before Newsom’s latest claim that this is simply President Trump using the DOJ to settle political scores.

To be clear, no charges against Gavin Newsom himself have been announced in the reports or DOJ materials cited here.

But that caveat does not erase the problem for Newsom.

He is now trying to sell the public a simple story about political retaliation while the source trail points to multiple federal probes, a wife-tax angle, whistleblower complaints in California government, and a former top aide who already pleaded guilty.

Newsom pushed his own video out on X, leaning hard into the persecution message:

The political strategy is obvious.

Newsom wants the country talking about President Trump and a supposed hit list.

But the bigger story may be what federal investigators were already looking at before Newsom ever turned on the camera.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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