Long-running allegations of quid pro quos, ethics violations, and corruption that have swirled for years around the charities of California’s self-styled “First Partner,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, took center stage this afternoon when her husband, Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, accused the Trump Justice Department of probing his family for political reasons.
After Newsom disclosed the existence of the federal investigations in a video message Monday, the Sacramento Bee, citing two sources familiar with the investigation, reported that there are “several” ongoing investigations into the Newsoms—focusing on Siebel Newsom’s taxes and charities—but that the probes originated from whistleblower complaints submitted to the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento, Calif., not from Washington, D.C.
The investigations could center on whether Newsom illegally did favors for a Native American tribe he had told to donate to a gender-focused charity operated by Siebel Newsom, an arrangement several ethics watchdogs told the Washington Free Beacon in 2025 was riddled with red flags. Investigators could also be looking at as much as $1.5 million in personal income Siebel Newsom reportedly received from her production company, which produces far-left documentaries about gender and is funded by donations from corporations doing business with the state of California.
Federal officials, according to multiple reports today, have questioned friends and associates of the Newsoms, as well as people affiliated with Siebel Newsom’s nonprofits. One of Siebel Newsom’s groups that could be of particular interest to investigators is the California Partners Project, a “gender equality” nonprofit that works closely with the first partner’s government office and is funded primarily through donations solicited by the governor himself.
In some instances, Newsom appears to have granted political favors to entities that have donated to his wife’s nonprofits at his request. Since 2020, Newsom has asked organizations with businesses in California to donate more than $4.4 million to the California Partners Project, according to the state’s “behested payments” database. Those businesses include Graton Rancheria, a Native American tribe in Northern California that donated $1 million to the California Partners Project at Newsom’s urging around the same time the governor used his office to block a smaller tribe from opening a new casino near one of its own, the Free Beacon reported.
“This is very troubling and likely warrants further investigation by authorities,” Michael Chamberlain, director of ethics watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Free Beacon in July 2025. Chamberlain said the favors Newsom performed for Graton Rancheria around the same time the tribe donated to his wife’s charity may have run afoul of California state law that requires officials to recuse themselves from matters that pose a conflict of interest.
Siebel Newsom, who has officially renamed her office that of “The First Partner,” has become a lightning rod due to bizarre behavior and her embrace of fringe views on race and gender. Earlier this year, a 2016 video clip surfaced in which she appeared to try to bond with maximum security inmates at California’s notorious San Quentin prison by telling them how she accidentally killed her eight-year-old sister with a golf cart when she was six. She has accused the press of fighting a “war on women,” and given meandering discourses on “the manosphere” and toxic masculinity. She also said she gave her sons dolls and took all her children to Southern states to “witness racism, misogyny, bullying, and sexism.”
Newsom, who’s often found himself defending his wife, appeared rattled in his Monday video statement, denouncing the DOJ for investigating Siebel Newsom and saying that she’s a “public servant” who has done “nothing wrong other than having the temerity to advocate for what she believes in.”
He framed the investigations as being personally directed by Trump. “Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets,” he said. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for president.”
He continued: “Put my name on every and any enemy’s list you have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta.”
Newsom accused federal law enforcement officers of fishing for a crime by “digging through years and years of random documents” and “abusing the grand jury process.” He then went on at length to accuse the Trump family of manifold corruption.
But allegations against the Newsoms have long been percolating inside Sacramento, as reported by the Free Beacon in recent years.
Among the documents being reviewed by the officers are Siebel Newsom’s taxes, according to Semafor reporter Shelby Talcott. Siebel Newsom has raked in upwards of $1.5 million in personal income since 2020 from the Representation Project, her film production charity that produces far-left documentaries combating “intersectional gender stereotypes” and is funded by corporate donors that have received millions of taxpayer dollars from the Newsom administration, the Free Beacon reported.
It’s unclear exactly how much Siebel Newsom has earned from the Representation Project. The charity has paid her $760,000 in salary since 2020. In that same timeframe, the Representation Project also paid $773,000 to Girls Club Entertainment, LLC, a private production firm owned by Siebel Newsom which is not required to disclose how much it distributed to her.
Newsom’s tax returns would show a fuller picture of his wife’s total compensation from her charities, but Newsom hasn’t followed through on the pledge he made during his first campaign for governor in 2017 to release his tax returns to the public since he posted his 2020 tax return in 2022.
Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of the ethics watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, noted in April that Newsom’s failure to disclose his tax returns to the public coincides with the growing scrutiny surrounding his wife’s ties to her charities and accusations of self-enrichment.
“While the Newsoms’ hypocrisy is unsurprising, it does raise questions about what they may be hiding,” Sutherland told the Free Beacon in April.
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