Feds probe Gov. Gavin Newsoms travel, personal spending as new details of DOJ probe revealed

Gavin Newsom’s international globetrotting on the dime of wealthy benefactors has come under the microscope of federal investigators looking into California’s governor.The US Attorney’s Office issued subpoenas in September requesting about six years of communications around the California State Protocol Foundation, a nonprofit that has paid for Newsom’s travel expenses with privately donated funds instead of taxpayer money, according to a report by the San Francisco Standard.Federal investigators reportedly requested information about the Protocol Foundation’s donors and fundraisers, the governor’s international travel and events, and any money used for the governor’s living and personal expenses, according to the Standard.The feds also targeted information from multiple aides of the governor, including Becca Prowda, Newsom’s chief protocol officer who helps oversee his international trips.Prowda is married to San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.Communications with members of the Protocol Foundation’s board — who double as some of Newsom’s closest advisors and confidantes — were also reportedly of interest to investigators.Since 2019, Newsom has directed more than $7.5 million in donations from outside groups to the Protocol Foundation, according to state records reviewed by The California Post.

Roughly $5.1 million of that amount came from leftover inaugural funds.Some of the foundation’s top donors include companies and groups that have business with the state or are affected by Newsom’s decisions as governor.Donors include CVS, a foundation for Blue Shield, and Zoox, an autonomous vehicle company testing robotaxis in San Francisco and other California cities.

Newsom also sought money from the lefty dark money group New Venture Fund and crypto billionaire Chris Larsen.Other notable contributors are foundations linked to wealthy philanthropists Susie Tompkins Buell and Lisa Stone Pritzker, both of whom have helped bankroll Gov.Newsom’s...