California is FOR SALE: Gavin Newsom’s Pay-to-Play Politics

Governor Gavin Newsom “used his office to try to block a small tribe from opening a casino in Northern California, after taking nearly $2 million from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a major California political donor which operates its own gambling compound just 15 miles away from its rival’s proposed site, which broke ground on a $1 billion expansion in 2023,” the Washington Free Beacon reported in July.

Known as “behested” payments, this isn’t the Governor’s first rodeo. He accepted more than $700,000 from two major law firms in 2021 to both create and defend his Executive Order to repeal death penalty rules and dismantle the death chamber at San Quentin, James Lacy reported.

The Free Beacon continues:

“In April 2024, a few months before Newsom sent his letter to the Biden Interior Department, the Democratic governor requested Graton Rancheria to contribute $500,000 to his wife’s charity, the California Partners Project. And in April 2025, one month before Newsom filed his lawsuit against the Trump administration, he again asked Graton Rancheria to contribute another $500,000 to his wife’s charity. The tribe cut those checks specifically at Newsom’s request, according to California’s “behested payments” database, which discloses whenever state elected officials request others to make donations on their behalf.

While the data doesn’t show an explicit quid pro quo between Newsom and Graton Rancheria, several ethics experts told the Washington Free Beacon that Newsom’s charitable solicitations from the tribe to his wife’s charity just before he used the powers of his office to try to block its rival from opening a competing casino raises major red flags.”

Siebel Newsom’s California Partners Project “champions gender equity across the state and ensures our states media and technology industries are a force for good in the lives of all children.”

Siebel Newsom has another charity, “The Representation Project,” in which she produces “Gender Justice” films and sells them to California’s public schools.

“California Governor Gavin Newsom helped bankroll his wife’s charity with nearly $2million he solicited from a Native American tribe – while fighting on its behalf to kill a rival casino,” The Daily Mail reported this week.

“Now the governor’s office has reacted angrily to questions Daily Mail asked about the payments, called it ‘insulting and offensive’ to even be asked whether his official actions on behalf on the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR) amount to a quid-pro-quo. Records show that the governor personally requested the ‘behest payments’ from FIGR.”

“The Bay Area tribe donated $1.8million to The California Partners Project, a nonprofit co-founded by Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and another $450,000 to fund his inaugurations.

Newsom and the state then joined the tribe’s efforts to block a casino from opening just 15 miles from theirs, filing a lawsuit in May challenging the federal government’s approval of the project.”

Records show that from 2018 to 2024, the California governor solicited a total of $2.25million from the FIGR – with the majority going to Jennifer’s charity, the Daily Mail said.

This is pay-to-play politics, or legally known as “quid pro quo”, Latin meaning “something for something.”

While the citizens of the state were locked down under Gov. Newsom’s covid orders, Gavin Newsom and the Legislature also slithered a bill through committees in 2020 to ratify separate tribal-state gaming compacts between the State of California and six California tribes. SB 869, the Tribal gaming: compact ratification for:

• the Ione Band of Miwok Indians
• the Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California
• the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians
• the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians
• the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation
• the Tule River Indian Tribe

The compacts authorized the Tribes to engage in Class III Gaming, which governs most slots and casino table games like Random Number Generator slots, blackjack, craps and roulette.

The governor and legislature also exempted the six tribes from the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, which identifies environmental impact reports on construction projects, was well as mitigation measures, such as increased traffic, excessive road use, noise, etc…

SB 869 (Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa), ratified in 2020 the tribal-state gaming compacts entered into between the State of California and the above-named tribes. “The bill provides that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions related to these compacts and amended compacts are not projects for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act.”

The bill also authorized the Governor, under the California Constitution, to negotiate and conclude compacts, subject to ratification by the Legislature.

This brings us to a lawsuit filed in March, which the Globe reported on, and states, “The Ione Band of Miwok Indians is not on any of the four lists of historically recognized Indian tribes composed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) after the adoption of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA).” The lawsuit challenges federal government actions on behalf of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians:

As the lawsuit states, “Defendant Bureau of Indian Affairs and Laverdure, based on the Indian trust, unlawfully reached the May 24, 2012 ROD conclusion that the Ione Band was eligible, as a “federally recognized tribe” under federal jurisdiction in 1934, to have the Secretary “acquire 228.04 acres of land into trust for” its benefit under Section 5 of the IRA.”

Each one of the Individual Plaintiffs lives within sight of the 12 land parcels that are claimed to have been taken into federal “trust” status that removes these lands as “Indian country” from all local planning, zoning and enforcement of any local municipal ordinances. One Individual Plaintiff owns real property directly adjacent to several of the federally owned parcels. Each one of these Individual Plaintiffs must drive by these land parcels to access their grocery store. This proposed tribal casino project has adversely affected their property values and threatens to destroy the use and quiet enjoyment of their individual properties.

In June, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro requested a 57-day extension until August 12, 2025, for Defendants’ response to the deadline, because Pirro was assigned
the case coinciding with her appointment to the U.S. Attorney’s Office by the Trump administration. “As a result, the undersigned also needs sufficient time to confer with the agencies about this matter.” The U.S. Attorney represents the agencies and individual defendants in their official capacities.

In the extension, Pirro acknowledges:

In support of this motion, the undersigned counsel states the following:
1. Plaintiff appears to bring this action against the Defendants challenging the alleged “inclusion, on November 2, 1994, by the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs, of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians in the list of Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible to Receive Services from the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Federally
Recognized Indian Tribe List Act” as well as the alleged “acceptances into federal trust by the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, first, on March 20, 2020, of ten (10) parcels of land under Section 203 of the Indian Land
Consolidation Act (25 U.S.C. § 2202), and then, on October 17, 2024, of two (2) parcels of land under Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act (25 U.S.C. § 5108), each parcel of which had been owned by a private donor in fee simple and located in Amador County and Plymouth, California.”

In a nation built on free enterprise and personal responsibility, the abuse of nonprofit organizations and behest contributions by political elites like California Governor Gavin Newsom represents a betrayal of American values, Richie Greenberg and I reported in March.

These mechanisms, intended to foster benevolence, charity and public good, have instead morphed into a taxpayer-subsidized slush fund for the well-connected, allowing politicians across America to enrich their families, reward donors, and dodge accountability—all while cloaking their schemes in the guise of altruism. This is not just unethical; it’s a direct assault on the principles of limited government and fair play.

Non-profit organizations and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become a shadow government in the U.S. It’s time to expose this racket and demand legislative reform to shut it down.

And… August 12 is just around the corner.

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