Federal prosecutors have issued subpoenas demanding six years of records from the nonprofit that bankrolls Governor Gavin Newsom's globe-trotting travel, a criminal probe his office dismisses as political retaliation.
The U.S. Attorney's Office served subpoenas in September targeting the California State Protocol Foundation, the privately funded nonprofit that picks up the tab for Newsom's international trips, events, and personal expenses, The California Post reported. The subpoenas seek roughly six years of communications involving the foundation's donors, fundraisers, the governor's overseas travel, and, notably, money spent on Newsom's living and personal expenses.
Multiple aides to the governor were also targeted, including Becca Prowda, Newsom's chief protocol officer, who helps oversee his international schedule. Prowda is married to San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. Federal investigators have separately been examining the taxes of Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a source with knowledge of the matter previously told The Post.
The scope of the subpoenas, donor lists, fundraiser records, board-member communications, personal spending, suggests prosecutors are casting a wide net around the financial machinery that has kept Newsom airborne for years. The foundation itself offered no defense, saying only that it "could not discuss the investigation."
$7.5 million funneled through a nonprofit most Californians never heard of
Since 2019, Newsom has directed more than $7.5 million in donations from outside groups to the Protocol Foundation, state records reviewed by The California Post show. Roughly $5.1 million of that came from leftover inaugural funds. The rest flowed in from corporate and individual donors whose interests intersect directly with the governor's regulatory authority.
Among the foundation's top donors: CVS, the Blue Shield foundation, and Zoox, an autonomous vehicle company testing robotaxis in San Francisco and other California cities. Each has business before the state or is directly affected by decisions Newsom makes. Newsom also sought donations from crypto billionaire Chris Larsen and the New Venture Fund, a left-leaning dark-money organization.
Wealthy philanthropists Susie Tompkins Buell and Lisa Stone Pritzker, whose foundations donated to the Protocol Foundation, have also helped bankroll Newsom's political activities and propped up nonprofits run by his wife. The overlapping donor networks raise obvious questions about what contributors expected in return for keeping the governor's travel fund flush.
Federal authorities have been increasingly aggressive in pursuing corruption probes against prominent political figures, and the Newsom investigation fits a broader pattern of prosecutors following the money behind elected officials' lifestyles.
Davos, Munich, London, China, and a pandemic speech at an empty stadium
The Protocol Foundation has funded an ambitious travel schedule for a state governor. This year alone, Newsom jetted to Davos for the World Economic Forum, Munich for an international security conference, and London to sign an environmental pact. In 2023, he led a weeklong delegation trip to China.
Documents obtained by The Post after a public records battle this summer show Newsom had more than 30 briefings or meetings with Prowda regarding his travel schedule and sessions with foreign leaders. Prowda staffed the governor at events including the California Hall of Fame ceremony, meetings with Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and meetings with former UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy.
The foundation's spending was not limited to overseas diplomacy. During the pandemic, protocol funds paid for Newsom to deliver his State of the State address at an empty Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Last year, the nonprofit reportedly picked up the tab when Newsom sent burner phones to top tech CEOs, an expenditure whose purpose remains unexplained in public records.
That kind of spending spree left marks on the books. By the end of 2024, IRS records show the Protocol Foundation had spent almost $600,000 more than it brought in over the previous two years, leaving the organization with just $7,790 in net funds. A nonprofit that once channeled millions was functionally broke.
Newsom's inner circle runs the foundation's board
The Protocol Foundation is not managed at arm's length. Steve Kawa, the foundation's chair, is a former chief of staff to Newsom from his days as San Francisco mayor. Newsom recently appointed Kawa chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Jason Elliott, a longtime Newsom advisor who also sits on the Protocol Foundation's board, received a High-Speed Rail Authority appointment as well.
Jim DeBoo, who previously served as Newsom's chief of staff, is the foundation's secretary, IRS filings confirm. The board reads less like an independent oversight body and more like a reunion of Newsom's political operation, the same people who helped build his career now managing the nonprofit that funds his lifestyle. When other California public officials have faced federal scrutiny, investigators have followed precisely these kinds of intertwined relationships between public power and private money.
Newsom's office calls it Trump's revenge
The governor's office wasted no time framing the investigation as political. Spokesperson Tara Gallegos issued a statement to The Post:
"Governor Newsom went after the king, and as he warned in June, the tyrant is now coming after everyone around him."
Gallegos added a second broadside:
"This is what Donald Trump does to his enemies: investigate first, hunt for a crime that doesn't exist second."
The retaliation claim rests on Newsom's public criticism of the Trump administration and his widely discussed interest in a 2028 presidential run. But the assertion that federal prosecutors are simply doing the president's bidding is, at this point, unsupported by any evidence in the public record. The U.S. Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
The Protocol Foundation's own spokesperson offered a more measured response, saying the organization "has proudly supported both Republican and Democratic administrations in fulfilling their duties representing all of California through public events and international engagements." That statement did not address the substance of the subpoenas or the foundation's financial condition.
Federal investigations into elected officials' use of outside funds have produced charges and convictions across party lines in recent years. Whether Newsom's arrangement crosses any legal line remains to be seen, but the "political retaliation" defense has become a reflexive response from officials under federal scrutiny, and it has not stopped prosecutors before.
What prosecutors want, and what remains unanswered
The subpoenas paint a picture of an investigation that goes beyond travel receipts. Prosecutors want donor records, fundraiser communications, details on international trips and events, and documentation of money spent on the governor's personal and living expenses. They want communications involving board members, the same loyalists Newsom installed from his own political network.
No charges have been filed. No arrests have been made. The specific crimes or violations under investigation have not been disclosed. But the breadth of the subpoenas, six years of records, multiple aides, the governor's personal spending, indicates this is not a narrow inquiry into a single trip or a single donor.
The separate examination of Jennifer Siebel Newsom's taxes adds another dimension. Her nonprofits have been financially supported by the same wealthy donors, Buell and Pritzker, who contributed to the Protocol Foundation. Whether those overlapping financial relationships are merely awkward or legally significant is a question federal investigators appear determined to answer.
When federal agents have moved against other high-profile public officials, the initial subpoenas often proved to be the opening phase of a much longer process. Newsom's team is betting the retaliation narrative will shield him politically. Prosecutors, who tend to work quietly and slowly, are betting on the paper trail.
A governor who funneled $7.5 million through a nonprofit run by his own former staffers, stocked with donations from companies he regulates, and spent down to its last $7,790 now wants the public to believe the only problem here is the people asking questions. Taxpayers and voters can judge that claim for themselves.
