Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) has a fierce battle plan for fighting back President Donald Trump and his latest act of political retribution.

A day after the California Democrat announced that he and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, were the subjects of a “baseless” investigation by the Justice Department, the governor’s team laid out its defense in a fiery memo sent to congressional allies and reporters.

Newsom’s office told HuffPost the one-sheet was a standard part of their communications and not a messaging decree for fellow Democrats.

“Our office always shares stakeholder talking points for any major announcement,” Brandon Richards, Newsom’s deputy director for rapid response, said in an email. “As the Governor has said, we have nothing to hide and are happy to provide information to reporters and others seeking context.”

In bright red at the top of the “talking points” brief, the “talking points” document states that Newsom is being targeted because of his plans to run for president in 2028 and that the DOJ is “searching for a crime that does NOT exist.”

Bolded bullet points accuse Trump of wielding the Justice Department as a political weapon and call the president a “coward and abuser” for also going after Newsom’s wife.

“Trump is running an open-air corruption market out of the White House and openly profiting from the presidency,” the memo states.

A Q&A section alleges the DOJ is “chasing conspiracy theories” and dismisses the department’s probe as a “lawless fishing expedition” crafted to “find ‘dirt’ on the Governor.”

Top Democrats seemed to agree the investigation looked like a clear case of political retribution.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told MS NOW he found it hard to believe the investigation had nothing to do with Newsom’s White House ambitions on Monday night.

“You can’t tell me this is a pure coincidence that they decide to go after a Democratic candidate, likely candidate for president, and his family, that this was purely random,” he said. “The president makes it clear, this is deliberate.”

During a climate conference in Austria on Tuesday, former Vice President Kamala Harris told attendees she wasn’t surprised Trump was launching yet another apparent revenge plot.

“He told us most of what we would knew would happen, including that he would go after his political enemies using the Department of Justice,” she said.

Trump foes like former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, New York Attorney General Leticia James, Schiff and more have also found themselves in the DOJ’s crosshairs.

After Newsom announced that he and his wife had made it onto Trump’s “hit list” in a post on X, his office delivered a legal counterpunch with a letter demanding all the documents pertaining to the investigation from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“The American people deserve to know who ordered this abuse of power and how far it goes,” Newsom wrote while posting the letter on X.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article was lacking context about where the document was available. Newsom’s team said it responded to all questions about the investigation with this fact sheet.

By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.