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Life moves pretty fast. It is Monday lunchtime when Jennifer Siebel Newsom drops into the Guardian’s office in Washington, just a couple of blocks from the White House, for an interview to promote her new film. Less than two hours later her husband, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, announces that the couple are under investigation by the justice department.

One strand of the investigation specifically targets Siebel Newsom’s taxes and the California Partners Project, a gender equity non-profit she co-founded that received $4.3m in donations solicited by her husband. Gavin Newsom denounced the move as a “personal vendetta” directed by Donald Trump because the governor is considering running for US president.
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