The Newsom political machine has spent weeks insisting Donald Trump cooked up a federal investigation to silence California’s most vocal Democrat governor.
But the story got a lot harder to sell when Jennifer Siebel Newsom sat down with MS NOW and ran straight into a question she clearly wasn’t ready for.
Six seconds of silence and a lot of blinking later, the whole “Trump did this” argument started coming apart at the seams.
What Actually Happened on Live Television
In her first interview on the DOJ probe, Jennifer Siebel Newsom told MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle on Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle that the investigation is a “fishing expedition.”
“I mean, this is typical Trump fashion. Go after your enemies. And so you’d have to ask the DOJ,” she said, before plugging her latest documentary.
That part went smoothly enough. She had her talking points. She knew the lane she was driving in.
But Siebel Newsom wasn’t as smooth when asked about reports that the DOJ investigation began under former President Joe Biden’s administration. There was about six seconds of silence as Siebel Newsom simply blinked several times, before Ruhle pressed: “The Trump administration has been using the Department of Justice. It’s no surprise to launch investigations and prosecutions of people that the president sees as his political opponents. But is it true that this investigation started during the Biden administration?”
And then came the answer that will follow Gavin Newsom’s presidential ambitions for a while.
“You know, I don’t know the details. I do know that, you know, Trump was coming after my husband when back when Biden was, was president and Biden was running for the presidency. And I thought it was ironic. So, look, I this is, this is a fishing expedition. And I think what you’re saying is that it’s just been going on for a long time. My husband is Trump’s most outspoken critic, and he’s the GOP’s biggest you know, I don’t know. They’ve always targeted my husband. And whether it’s the GOP themselves or, you know, their media empire with Rupert Murdoch and the like, we’re just, you know, kind of sitting ducks in that regard because they think that my husband’s aspiring for the presidency and they want to silence him, and therefore they go after his wife and those close to him.”
“I don’t know the details” — followed immediately by a string of very specific claims she apparently does know. That’s a tough combination to pull off in front of a camera.
The Biden Connection the Newsoms Keep Trying to Step Around
The reason the question landed so hard is that the facts don’t cooperate with the Newsom camp’s preferred story.
A separate DOJ investigation into Newsom’s former chief of staff was launched during President Joe Biden’s administration and remains open and evolving, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Those investigations originated in Sacramento and involved whistleblowers and sources in the state, rather than coming from the main DOJ.
But Gavin Newsom went on social media and told the world Trump personally ordered his family targeted. Newsom claimed that President Donald Trump ordered the investigations, but he offered no evidence to support that allegation.
A person familiar with the probe denied that it was launched by the department’s Trump-appointed leadership in Washington, DC.
So the governor of California made a sweeping accusation against the sitting President of the United States, his wife went on national television to back it up, and when a friendly host on a sympathetic network asked the most basic follow-up question imaginable — did this actually start under Biden? — the answer was six seconds of silence and “I don’t know the details.”
The person familiar with the probe told CNN it was started based on whistleblower reports, insisting that the leadership of the DOJ headquarters in Washington, DC was not involved in opening the probe.
That’s not a minor wrinkle. That’s the foundation of the Newsoms’ entire public defense collapsing on live television.
And the probe into Siebel Newsom herself isn’t a recycled Biden-era case. One of the probes pertains to Siebel Newsom’s tax matters and was launched in 2025. Siebel Newsom, who founded a nonprofit focused on gender equity in media, is being investigated for tax-related conduct, as are other people with connections to the governor, a person familiar with the investigation told CNN.
Sources close to Newsom have told other media outlets that the investigation focuses on nonprofit projects connected to Siebel Newsom, one of which was revealed to have received millions from special interests doing business with Newsom and the state.
Then there’s the matter of Dana Williamson. A former political consultant and ex-aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, submitting a false tax return, and lying to federal investigators. The consultant, Dana Williamson, was charged in a corruption scandal that shocked Sacramento.
Prosecutors accused Williamson of helping to siphon roughly $225,000 from the dormant state-level campaign account of then-Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a former client of her political consulting firm and now a candidate for governor.
Authorities also allege she claimed more than $1 million in business deductions on her taxes for personal expenses, such as private jet travel, birthday trips to Mexico, and designer handbags.
None of that was cooked up by Donald Trump. Federal prosecutors in Sacramento built that case under Joe Biden’s watch.
What the Newsom Camp Is Really Selling Here
Gavin Newsom wants to run for president. That much is obvious to anyone paying attention to California politics. And the strategy his team is running right now — cast every legal problem as a Trump persecution campaign — makes sense as a fundraising pitch and a media narrative. It just doesn’t hold up when someone asks a direct question on camera.
What Siebel Newsom’s interview actually revealed is that the family hasn’t developed a real answer to the Biden-era origin problem. They’ve got the Trump villain, they’ve got the “fishing expedition” line, they’ve got the appeals to Rupert Murdoch and the “media empire.” But the one thing they don’t have is an explanation for why Joe Biden’s own Justice Department was already circling people inside Gavin Newsom’s orbit before Trump ever took the oath of office.
And that’s the question Stephanie Ruhle — not exactly a Trump ally — put directly to Siebel Newsom. Six seconds of silence is a long time on live television. Longer still when the cameras keep rolling and the answer that finally comes out is “I don’t know the details” immediately followed by a confident declaration that Trump has been targeting her husband since the Biden years.
You can’t claim ignorance of the details and then use those details to make your argument. Voters — especially voters who might consider putting Gavin Newsom in the White House — are going to notice that.
The Newsom political operation is very good at generating noise. Press releases, social media videos, righteous indignation on friendly cable programs. But noise isn’t the same as an answer. And right now, the answer to the most important question in this story — who actually started this investigation and why — is one the Newsoms clearly don’t want to give.
Because the honest answer points back to Biden’s DOJ, whistleblowers in Sacramento, and a former Newsom chief of staff who just pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. None of that fits the narrative. So instead, six seconds of blinking and a pivot to Rupert Murdoch.
California voters will get to decide what they make of all that. The rest of the country is watching too.
Sources: Mediaite; The Daily Wire; CNN; CalMatters; Bloomberg Government; Headline USA