After months of stonewalling, after promising transparency while lawyers negotiated and deadlines blew past, after going on television to say he had “nothing to hide” while repeatedly failing to produce the documents that would prove it — Gavin Newsom finally opened his tax returns to public view Thursday.
Sort of.
He invited a select group of journalists to his office. They were given five hours. They could bring blank paper and pens. Cameras were prohibited. Phones were prohibited. Photocopies were prohibited. Smart glasses were prohibited. Nearly 800 pages of returns, viewed in a controlled environment, with no ability to take anything out of the room except handwritten notes.
This is what Gavin Newsom calls transparency.
The numbers themselves, as reported by the journalists who attended the controlled viewing, raise as many questions as they answer. The Newsoms’ taxable income from 2021 through 2024 ranged from $1.4 million to $3.5 million — the high point driven by income from a home sale in Marin County rather than any underlying business success. Their average taxable income for 2022, 2023, and 2024 was $1.4 million per year — exactly what it was during his tenure as lieutenant governor a decade ago.
That number wouldn’t raise an eyebrow if the Newsoms were living a $1.4 million lifestyle. They are not.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s for-profit company, Girls Club Entertainment, lost money in all four years covered by the returns. She drew no salary from it in 2023 or 2024. The couple spent approximately $190,000 per year on household employees. They carried a $13,000 per month mortgage on their Fair Oaks estate. And in November 2024, Jennifer Siebel Newsom purchased a $9.1 million Marin County mansion through an LLC — an LLC that then took out a $6.5 million mortgage that she, her parents, and other LLC members had to personally guarantee.
A woman whose for-profit company is losing money and paying her nothing personally guaranteed a $6.5 million mortgage on a $9.1 million property. The returns do not explain how that happened. The journalists in that room were not allowed to take the documents out to ask follow-up questions.
Newsom’s spokesman declared him “the first Governor in California history to publicly release tax returns covering every year of his tenure in office.” The governor’s definition of “publicly release” apparently includes “in a controlled room with no recording devices, handpicked press, and five hours to take notes by hand.”
Donald Trump used to be criticized for not releasing his taxes. When he eventually did — through legal proceedings — anyone could read them. Newsom staged a viewing. That’s not the same thing, and every journalist in that room knows it.
The DOJ investigation continues. The financial questions remain unanswered. And Gavin Newsom just spent the day congratulating himself for a performance of transparency that doesn’t survive the most basic scrutiny.
Nothing to hide. Cameras prohibited. You be the judge.
