A bombshell article published last week by the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute's City Journal alleges that California Governor Gavin Newsom has spent nearly three decades in public office cultivating what the publication calls a "circle of corruption" among close aides and political appointees.
The lengthy investigation, co-authored by senior fellow Christopher F. Rufo, Government Accountability Institute researcher Jedd McFatter, and national correspondent Susan Crabtree, scrutinizes Newsom's record dating back to his tenure as San Francisco mayor and traces a pattern of associations with figures who later faced criminal charges or serious ethical violations.
Among the most prominent figures highlighted is Victor Makras, a real estate investor whom Newsom appointed to the San Francisco Retirement Board in 2010. The article notes that three years prior, Makras's company had made a $5,000 payment at Newsom's request to fund his mayoral swearing-in ceremony. More than a decade later, Makras was convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to a bank, receiving three years of probation and a $15,200 fine for his role in fraudulently obtaining a $1.3 million loan.
The timing of the article coincides with mounting federal pressure on California officials. Newsom's former chief of staff was recently indicted on 23 felony charges in connection with a federal corruption investigation. Additionally, last year the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California established a task force specifically targeting fraud in the state's homelessness programs, which have spent $24 billion in five years with limited accounting.
The article is not an isolated publication but part of a broader campaign. Rufo has publicly stated that City Journal intends to release weekly investigations into California corruption throughout the year, explicitly comparing the effort to prior reporting on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. "My own personal goal ... is to do to Gavin Newsom in California what we did to Tim Walz in Minneapolis," Rufo said earlier this year.
Critics of the investigation, including some independent analysts, have questioned whether the piece establishes direct wrongdoing by the governor himself or rather documents problematic associations. A commentary published by CalMatters in April criticized an earlier City Journal fraud investigation for using "questionable assumptions and some mysterious mathematics" to allege that $180 billion had been stolen from taxpayers on Newsom's watch.
As the 2026 gubernatorial election approaches, the intensifying scrutiny from conservative media outlets and federal prosecutors alike ensures that questions about ethics and oversight will remain central to California's political discourse in the months ahead.
