Could a lawsuit accusing Gavin Newsom of running an anti-Semitic smear campaign against a military commander throw a wrench into his 2028 presidential ambitions? Under normal circumstances, absolutely. But given the state of today’s Democratic Party — the same party that just elevated socialist firebrand Zohran Mamdani to the mayor’s office in New York City — it might actually help him.
Hard to say how this shakes out politically — but one thing’s for sure: the popcorn industry’s about to see record profits. According to a Washington Free Beacon report, Gavin Newsom and his handpicked National Guard adjutant, Matthew Beevers, just struck out in their attempt to get a lawsuit tossed.
A state court in Sacramento has ordered a full trial in the case brought by former Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Magram, who says he was fired two years ago after objecting to what he describes as Beevers’ anti-Semitic smear campaign against his aide:
A former commander of the California National Guard who says Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) “facilitated” an anti-Semitic campaign that resulted in his wrongful termination will have his day in court, a judge ruled Friday. The move could cause a major headache for Newsom ahead of his expected 2028 presidential campaign.
Former brigadier general Jeffrey Magram is suing the state of California and Adjutant General Matthew Beevers, a Newsom appointee who has faced allegations of denigrating a Jewish subordinate as a “kike” lawyer. Magram alleges that Newsom “facilitated and ratified” a Beevers-driven campaign of anti-Semitic discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against him that started after Magram defended a fellow Jew from Beevers’s anti-Semitic rants and ended with Newsom’s office signing an order to dismiss Magram in November 2022.
Sacramento Superior Court judge Richard K. Sueyoshi rejected the Newsom administration’s efforts to quash Magram’s lawsuit in an Oct. 31 ruling authorizing six of its eight counts to proceed toward a trial. The ruling will force the Newsom administration to comply with document discovery and deposition requests that Magram says have been ignored since he filed his lawsuit in January 2024.
Well, discovery should be lit — maybe even literally. This isn’t just some random retired officer picking a fight. Jeffrey Magram is a seasoned military leader with a very specific area of expertise — one that, let’s just say, would’ve been extremely useful about ten months ago when chaos was breaking loose and real leadership in California was in short supply:
In his effort to prove discrimination, Magram points to his personnel file, which is replete with glowing reviews for his record fighting natural disasters. “Lives saved” is a common refrain in Magram’s officer performance reports, which credit him with leading the California Air National Guard’s response to some of the most catastrophic wildfires in state history.
Magram had 37 years of military experience and was only 3 years away from being able to retire with a full pension when Beevers issued a memo in June 2022, deeming him unfit to serve as a senior leader. The memo initiated a long, bureaucratic process that would ultimately end later that year with Newsom ordering Magram’s termination from state service.
The Beevers memo cited a heavily redacted 2021 report from the U.S. Air Force’s inspector general, who was investigating the California National Guard, that claimed Magram “had subordinates transport [him] to personal appointments and run personal errands on multiple occasions.” Beevers said the conduct described in the report caused him to lose confidence in Magram’s ability to serve as a senior military leader.
But Magram says that Beevers weaponized a flawed report to justify his firing, thus depriving California of one of its most talented wildfire containment specialists amid a crisis.
Beevers and Newsom are claiming Magram was fired “for cause,” citing reports that he allegedly had subordinates perform personal errands — a supposed ethics violation. But when the Free Beacon dug into the details, the story started to look pretty thin. Experts who reviewed the case called the incidents minor, even trivial. The Air Force had merely issued Magram a letter of admonishment for having a subordinate drive his mother to Whole Foods — hardly the kind of offense that ends a decades-long career.
At the time, even the California National Guard told the L.A. Times that the allegations weren’t “career-ending.” But apparently, Newsom and Beevers saw things differently — and now they’ll have to explain why.
Judge Sueyoshi ruled that a jury deserves to hear the case, meaning Beevers and Newsom will be forced to take the stand under oath and hand over all their internal communications for review. In other words, the discovery process just became Newsom’s worst nightmare — because if there’s more to this story, it’s about to come out in the open.
I doubt it ever makes it to trial. Far more likely, Newsom and Beevers will whip out the state checkbook and quietly buy Magram’s silence before discovery gets too close for comfort. They’ll toss a pile of taxpayer cash at the problem, bury it under a stack of NDAs, and issue the classic “settled on undisclosed terms” statement before skipping off to the next press conference.
Sure, this kind of scandal might actually make Newsom a folk hero in certain far-left circles — places like New York City or Dearborn, where anti-Israel sentiment is now treated like a political credential. But even “Greasy Gavin” knows better than to test that theory on a national stage. He’s sleazy, not stupid. Expect this one to disappear faster than a California budget surplus.
