California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in enough legal trouble that he’s turning to an unexpected direction: Trouble former first son Hunter Biden and his legal team.
The California governor and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have retained Abbe Lowell – one of Hunter’s top defense attorneys — as federal investigators scrutinize the first partner’s nonprofit finances and a former Newsom chief of staff faces federal fraud charges.
Lowell’s recent client list reads like a who’s-who of Democrats in legal jeopardy. He has represented Hunter Biden, former Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez and John Edwards, and more recently New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. He also served as House Democrats’ chief minority counsel during Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings.
Now he’s representing California’s governor.
Two separate federal investigations have ensnared Newsom’s orbit. The first centers on Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit finances. According to the Los Angeles Times, federal investigators and the FBI are scrutinizing The Representation Project, a gender-equity nonprofit she founded. Specifically they’re looking into the financial relationship with Girls Club Entertainment, a for-profit production company she separately owns.
Federal tax records show The Representation Project has paid Siebel Newsom more than $1.9 million in compensation over the course of her tenure. The same nonprofit has awarded approximately $2.2 million in contracts back to Girls Club Entertainment. IRS filings show Siebel Newsom has paid herself and her company up to a third of her nonprofit’s total income each year, pocketing more than $3.7 million from the charity over the past decade, according to The Daily Mail and Breitbart reports.
The second investigation has already resulted in one guilty plea. Dana Williamson, Newsom’s former chief of staff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, filing a false tax return, and lying to the FBI.
Newsom has claimed Trump ordered the DOJ to go after. Yet Washington Examiner senior political analyst Byron York confirmed the investigation originated in California before Trump took office for his second term.
“It originated during the Joe Biden years,” York noted on Fox News. “So it just literally can’t have been started by Trump.”
Now, Newsom is lawyering up… and borrowing from Hunter Biden’s playbook.