Newsom accuses Trump of directing DOJ to investigate him
California governor Gavin Newsom has accused Donald Trump of directing the US justice department to investigate him and his wife.
“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean Tweets,” Newsom said in a video statement posted to X. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for President.”
I have reached out to the Department of Justice for comment and I will update this post if I get a response.
Newsom said federal agents had in recent days been knocking on the door of members of his family, friends and former employees demanding documents and records. “Not because they found a crime. Because they are simply trying to find one,” he said.
“Mr. President, come after me. I am not going anywhere,” Newsom said. “And the country is watching.”
Newsom and Trump have long been critical of each other, and their clashes on major issues including the climate emergency and pipelines descended into total acrimony over the president’s deployment of national guard troops to Los Angeles last summer.
Key events
Closing summary
We’re closing our US politics blog for today. Here’s a recap of what we’ve covered:
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The United States and Iran have signed a memo of understanding giving them 60 days to find a way out of the war. The terms of the deal, which has not been publicly released, remain unclear. Vice-president JD Vance called the 1.5-page MOU a “very general document” whose details will be ironed out in the coming weeks of negotiations.
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The future of the strait of Hormuz remains cloudy. US officials have offered conflicting forecasts for the future of the straight, with Trump saying that by the end of the week it “will be completely open,” while other officials say it may take longer for shipping to return to something approximating the pre-war status quo. Iran foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghei, however, told reporters that Iran may still charge fees to pass through the straight.
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Trump is in Évian-les-Bains, France, to attend the G7 summit, where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is hoping world leaders will help him find a way out of his country’s four-year war. He spoke with Donald Trump ahead of the G7 meeting, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin is also attending.
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California govenor Gavin Newsom is accusing Trump of directing the US justice department to investigate him and his wife. Newsom, a prominent Democrat, tweeted that Trump was coming after him because he is considering running for the president.
Thanks for reading. See you next time.
JD Vance on Iran deal: ‘It is a very general document’
Vice President JD Vance offered a few more broad strokes about the still-unreleased memo of understanding that promises to open the Straight of Hormuz and halt the Iran War for two months as more detailed negotiations proceed.
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Vance framed the pact as a carrot-stick approach that would lure Iran’s leadership into playing a more integrated role in the global economy if the country agreed to stop funding US-designated terrorist groups beyond its borders and to make a “verifiable commitment to not building a nuclear weapon.”
“We’re going to totally transform our relationship with Iran and Iran’s broader relationship with the Middle East,” Vance said.
The vice president did not spell out clearly what would happen if Iran failed to meet the US demands, other than continued economic sanctions. “We really prefer they choose the option where there’s greater economic cooperation,” Vance said.
The memorandum of understanding the countries signed is only “about a page and a half,” Vance said.
“It is a very general document,” Vance said. “On a number of issues, we are going to have to figure this stuff out during the technical negotiation phase.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the G7 summit this week – or in the United States – to end the four-year war, Reuters reports.
“We gave message that we are ready to meet with Putin during (the) G7, because Trump is there and Macron is there, so Europeans plus America,” Zelenskiy told reporters, according to Reuters. “This is a good, I think, very good opportunity to meet all together.”
Zelenskiy spoke with Donald Trump ahead of the G7 meeting in France, urging him to help mediate an end to the four-year war with Russia. The Ukrainian president also penned an open letter to Putin earlier this month, but Putin brushed off the overture.
Zelenskiy said he had suggested to Trump that he and the Russian president meet in the US. “Yesterday we discussed with President Trump that such a meeting could be organised in the US in a format that would make it much harder for Putin to refuse, at least to refuse President Trump,” he said. “We will see what comes of this. If Russia rejects this chance too, more pressure will be needed.“
Alaska disqualifies challenger with same name as senator Dan Sullivan
Alaska’s Division of Elections has disqualified a second Dan Sullivan from appearing on the ballot for the state’s hotly contested US Senate primary race, according to the Associated Press.
A letter from the division’s Director Carol Beecher says that the newcomer Sullivan “filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.” He technically has 30 days to appeal the decision, though ballots will be printed on June 28, the letter says.
GOP leaders have railed against Sullivan number two, accusing him of trying to drain votes from the Republican incumbent as he enters into a competitive, open primary election. Democrats hope that former US Rep. Mary Peltola can flip the seat.
California governor Gavin Newsom’s accusation comes as the president has repeatedly gone after the Democrat-dominated state during his second term.
Just to name a few, Trump has blocked California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, withheld aid for wildfire recovery and sued over California state policies supporting transgender student-athletes. On dozens of occasions the state has pushed back by suing the federal government.
It’s worth noting that Newsom has also led a push to counteract a Trump-backed effort in Texas and other red states to redraw congressional maps to favor Republicans by championing a successful redistricting measure in California designed to win Democrats five additional House seats.
Per my colleague Sam Levine, the California governor’s office said federal agents had reached out to people and entities connected to Gavin Newsom and his wife, including friends, former employees, and associates, issuing subpoenas for documents and conducting interviews that spanned years.
The DOJ still has yet to respond. I’ll bring any word from them as we get it.
Dani Anguiano
In his statement, Gavin 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 hit list. And today, I proudly join that list,” Newsom said, pointing out that Trump called for his arrest last year.
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.”
The New York Times reported, citing an unnamed source, the administration has multiple federal investigations into the governor, and one examining Siebel Newsom’s finances.
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”.
A reminder that last year Donald Trump said he would support Gavin Newsom being arrested over his alleged obstruction of immigration enforcement in California.
The president said it would be a “great thing” if his border czar Tom Homan arrested Newsom. In response, the California governor fired back that calling for the arrest of a sitting governor was an “unmistakable step toward authoritarianism”.
Newsom accuses Trump of directing DOJ to investigate him
California governor Gavin Newsom has accused Donald Trump of directing the US justice department to investigate him and his wife.
“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean Tweets,” Newsom said in a video statement posted to X. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for President.”
I have reached out to the Department of Justice for comment and I will update this post if I get a response.
Newsom said federal agents had in recent days been knocking on the door of members of his family, friends and former employees demanding documents and records. “Not because they found a crime. Because they are simply trying to find one,” he said.
“Mr. President, come after me. I am not going anywhere,” Newsom said. “And the country is watching.”
Newsom and Trump have long been critical of each other, and their clashes on major issues including the climate emergency and pipelines descended into total acrimony over the president’s deployment of national guard troops to Los Angeles last summer.
The day so far
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A memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran to end hostilities on “all fronts” has been signed by president Donald Trump, vice-president JD Vance and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a senior US official said today. The precise terms of the deal remain unclear, but it will reportedly give the two sides 60 days to iron out what to do about Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, its nuclear programme, and sanctions relief. In the meantime, the strait of Hormuz would be opened and the US naval blockade of Iranian ports lifted. Despite Lebanon’s inclusion in the ceasefire deal, Israel remains defiant and said it will not withdraw from a vast swathe of territory it has seized in the country’s south.
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The text of the deal has yet to be released, and Trump said earlier that it would be published “pretty soon”. He and Vance signed the document electronically, US officials said, but the president will not be at the formal signing ceremony in Geneva on Friday. Vance, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will lead the US delegation instead.
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But there are remains a lack of clarity over the strait of Hormuz. Trump said today that ships are starting to pass through the strait of now and that by Friday, the strait “will be completely open”. A more cautious Vance had told CNBC this morning that the US’s expectation is that the critical waterway would opened in a toll-free way for the long term – but added that those details would be figured out in the upcoming technical talks. Then, a US official told reporters it could be two weeks before shipping gets back to normal. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghei, meanwhile, told a news briefing that Iran would not seek to collect tolls on ships passing through the strait, but suggested they could still charge fees “in exchange for the services that are provided”.
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Trump is in Évian-les-Bains, France, for the G7 summit, where it is hoped he will stay for the whole three days. In recent months he’s fallen out with the leaders of the UK, Germany and Italy who have criticized his war on Iran and declined to join his earlier efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz. More on how the host, French president Emmanuel Macron, has shaped the agenda around the G7’s most haphazard participant here.
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And finally, UFC chief executive Dana White insisted that yesterday’s event at the White House exceeded his expectations “in every way you gauge success” – but stood by his claim that it is a one-and-done. “It was an amazing, experience, this was a one of one,” he said. “It will never happen again.”
Donald Trump also said earlier that the memorandum of understanding aiming to end the war has already been signed by the United States and Iran, and the text would be published “pretty soon”.
“I think pretty soon … I want it to be released because it’s a very powerful document. It’s not like the Obama document, which was just a terrible document. This is a very powerful document and I want it to be released, so probably pretty soon,” Trump told reporters in France.
“I would say, sometime after Friday, because the strait, it’s open now, but it opens completely,” he said.
Trump and JD Vance both signed the deal electronically with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s lead negotiator, US officials told reporters.
That last post is in line with Donald Trump’s earlier suggestion that he would not attend the formal signing ceremony for the Iran agreement in Geneva on Friday.
Speaking alongside French president Emmanuel Macron at the G7 summit in Évian les-Bains, Trump had said his vice-president JD Vance would be going to Geneva for the signing.
“He was originally going to do it. I’ll probably be gone by then,” Trump said.
