GAVIN NEWSOM’S TRUMP PROSECUTION ENVY. Gavin Newsom is outraged. “In recent days, federal agents have knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees,” the California governor said in a recently released video accusing President Donald Trump of directing the Justice Department to investigate him. “They’re demanding records. They’re abusing the grand jury process, digging through years and years of random documents.”“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets,” Newsom continued. “He’s coming after me because I’m considering running for president, because he hates that I’ve consistently called him out over and over again for his lies and deceit.”All of this raises the question: Is Trump weaponizing the Justice Department to pursue a popular Democratic politician and possible 2028 presidential candidate? Or are there legitimate reasons that people around Newsom might attract the attention of prosecutors?
Bet on the latter. From a number of press accounts, we know that the investigations of people in the Newsom circle — there appear to be two such probes — were started by law enforcement in California, not by Trump-appointed officials in the Justice Department in Washington. “One of the investigations is examining Newsom’s wife for potential tax crimes related to a nonprofit she is linked to,” the Washington Post reported recently. “Another investigation is related to a case involving Newsom’s former chief of staff, who pleaded guilty in May to public corruption charges that include conspiracy to commit bank fraud.”
