Gavin Newsom said on Monday that Donald Trump directed the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate him and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
The California governor said in a video statement that federal agents had knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees in recent days as part of an effort to find a crime, demanding records and “abusing the grand jury process”.
“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets, he’s coming after me because I am considering running for president. Because he hates that I have consistently called him out over and over again for his lies and deceit,” Newsom said.
A source familiar with the matter told the Guardian the administration has been conducting several investigations of the California governor for roughly a year, including one regarding his wife and her taxes, and one related to his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, who recently pleaded guilty to fraud in federal court, and potentially current staff members. The source said the investigations originated in California, not in Washington, and is being run by the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of California, which includes Sacramento, the state capitol.
The justice department and the FBI declined to comment on the matter.
Newsom and Trump have frequently clashed. California has sued the administration more than 60 times in the president’s second term, including over the president’s move to deploy the US military to Los Angeles last summer. Trump called for Newsom’s arrest last summer for allegedly obstructing immigration enforcement operations in the state.
In his statement on Monday, Newsom pointed to the president’s many political rivals whom his administration has investigated, including James Comey, Letitia James and Tim Walz, among others.
“One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his hitlist. And today, I proudly join that list,” Newsom said.
But he criticized the administration for investigating his wife.
“You can subpoena my records. You can investigate me. You can harass me,” Newsom said. “Put my name on every and any enemy’s list you have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta.”
Siebel Newsom has become a frequent target of the right in recent months as her husband has emerged as an early frontrunner among Democrats for the presidential nomination.
Prominent conservatives have railed against her efforts to champion equal pay and gender equity while columnists have said she was “single-handedly wrecking” Newsom’s presidential ambitions.
Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor, described the Newsoms as a “grifter family”.
Sam Levine contributed reporting
