California Gov. Gavin Newsom made the world's craziest possible presidential campaign announcement Monday when he dropped a five-minute video saying he's under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, claiming that the investigation is politically motivated because he's considering running for president.
Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime - they are simply trying to find one.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 15, 2026
He isn't coming after me because of mean tweets, but because I am considering running for President.… pic.twitter.com/tVYk3WUvO8
Newsom doesn't say exactly what the investigation is allegedly about, but says that it's directed at his wife and references a grand jury:
"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. They're demanding records. They're abusing the grand jury process.
"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 that his campaign has reached my own home. To get me, he's coming after my wife, Jen. A public servant."
Newsom says he's joined Tim Walz, Adam Schiff, James Comey, and Jerome Powell on President Donald Trump's "hit list," and defiantly says, "Donald Trump picked the wrong target. We have nothing to hide."
Townhall's Cameron Arcand reports that there are multiple investigations, that they started in California, not Washington, D.C., stemming from whistleblower complaints, and that they have to do with Jennifer Siebel Newsom's taxes and with Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson. According to multiple years of tax returns reviewed by RedState, Gavin and Jennifer Newsom file taxes jointly, so if the investigation has to do with taxes, it has to do with both of them.
The Newsoms' full tax returns from 2017 through 2020 can be viewed at this link.
RedState has exclusively reported on the Newsoms' shady real estate deals, from Sacramento to Marin County. Back in 2020, we reported on the questionable transactions surrounding the acquisition and refinancing of the Newsoms' $3.7 million estate in Fair Oaks, California; to date, no explanation has been given.
Somebody paid $3.7 million cash, through an LLC, for a 12,663 square foot, 8-acre estate in December 2018 that was then transferred (or gifted) to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife shortly before the First Couple obtained a $2.7 million cashout mortgage loan on the property. A year after originally breaking that story we still don’t know who that somebody is and whether the transaction was legal or not. Newsom’s spokesperson, Nathan Click, has given two diametrically opposed explanations as to the origin of the cash, and neither holds up to scrutiny.
FULL COVERAGE
Gavin Newsom's Real Estate Deals
Since Newsom said the investigation was specifically directed at his wife, it could have to do with the purchase of a $9.1 million home in Marin County through an LLC controlled by Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Maybe they're investigating you because your finances don't add up? Or because your wife's LLC received the deed to a $9.1 million home a week before the LLC was even created - while you still had your Fair Oaks home? How was that LLC capitalized? https://t.co/8GNvkFHnus pic.twitter.com/SIIN1tinv1
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) June 15, 2026
The grant deed from a company controlled by Daniel Pritzker, a longtime Democrat donor, to Siebel Newsom's LLC is dated November 6, 2024, but her LLC wasn't formed until November 12. There's no indication of any mortgage on the property until February 2025, when the LLC obtained a $6.5 million mortgage (at 6.75% interest), and she and her parents all had to sign personal guarantees as members of the LLC. The mortgage for that property is over $42,000 a month, with an annual property tax bill of $118,000.
$6.5 million at 6.75% is a hefty mortgage, plus the $116k a year property taxes just for that home.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) June 15, 2026
More to come @RedState pic.twitter.com/rmB9FG2f2u
The Newsoms still carry a $2,695,000 mortgage on the Fair Oaks home; the payments for that mortgage are over $13,000 a month. While Newsom's wineries have been successful, those assets have been in a blind trust since 2018, and the couple's total annual income has averaged $1.4 million. Out of that, the couple paid an average of $450,000/year in total taxes and $200,000/year to domestic workers according to tax returns reviewed, in addition to property taxes, private school tuition, and mortgages, not to mention all of the other costs of maintaining a home and raising four children, bringing their total known expenditures to more than their average total annual income.
Given the level of chatter about this investigation, it seems we'll know sooner rather than later what it's focused on.
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