Commentary: Behested payments aren't illegal, but they are a problem. Especially for Newsom

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

After Gov.Gavin Newsom announced this week that the U.S.

Department of Justice may be investigating his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, media and pundits pounced on millions in charity payments he has solicited for nonprofits, including ones she is involved in.Those donations, known as “behested payments,” aren’t illegal in California, but, long before Newsom started asking for them, many have found them unsavory — with good cause.

A behest, after all, is by definition a command or at least a strong suggestion.Anytime a politician is commanding money, regardless of the purpose, there is at least the appearance that the giver — Meta, Google, Blue Shield for example — may expect something in return.It may seem absurd that the Trump administration could be investigating Newsom for questionable ethics, when Trump has hawked everything from crypto-coins to sneakers from the Oval Office.

But the problem Newsom now faces is that behested payments are actually skeevy, and legal or not, they make an excellent target for pummeling the presidential contender.Especially because some of the charities are tied to his wife.

California The California Fair Political Practices Commission fined the governor $31,500 for failing to promptly report 36 behested donations, mostly tied to 2025 wildfire recovery efforts.“The Newsom case has blown it wide open, but this has been an issue for years,” Sean McMorris told me.He’s the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager at Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization that has been raising alarms over behested payments for more than a decade.

McMorris said that while these payments don’t violate any laws, they are “ripe for abuse” because companies and people likely aren’t ponying up cash just to be good citizens.If you or I called up PG&E and asked them to give a few million to our favorite cause, I doubt we’d ...