California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, and High‑Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri hold a news conference in Wasco, Calif., Tuesday, Feb.3, 2026.

LATEST Feb. 18, 12:45 p.m. The CEO of California’s High-Speed Rail Authority is on voluntary leave after an arrest earlier this month at his Sacramento-area home, multiple outlets reported. 

Politico and the Los Angeles Times both reported that the rail authority confirmed Ian Choudri’s leave. The rail authority did not respond to SFGATE’s inquiry.

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“While CEO Choudri has informed the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board that he is not aware of any evidence of wrongdoing, he has voluntarily agreed to take a temporary leave to allow the Board and our parent agency, the California State Transportation Agency, to fully review and assess the situation,” rail authority spokesperson Peter Whippy told Politico. “We are taking this matter seriously, consistent with our longstanding commitment to public responsibility, transparency, and accountability.”

Feb. 17, 4 p.m. The CEO of California’s High-Speed Rail Authority was arrested earlier this month at his Sacramento-area home, although the county district attorney’s office did not file charges.  

Ian Choudri, who has been the head of the nation’s largest railway project since 2024, was arrested on Feb. 4 at his home in Folsom on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery, Lou Wright, a lieutenant with the Folsom Police Department, confirmed to SFGATE. The news was first reported by KCRA-TV this week. 

Don't let Google decide who you trust.

The arrest came after midnight, just hours after he attended a press conference with Gov. Gavin Newsom in Kern County to celebrate the completion of a logistics facility and the 119 miles of new track that are actively being installed.

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Allen Sawyer, Choudri’s lawyer, told SFGATE in a phone call that, in early February, his client was “dragged into” a “family squabble” involving two other family members. He said that a third party called in the incident to the Folsom Police Department. Officers responded and wrote an incident report, Sawyer said, but no charges were filed, and Choudri was not required to appear in court, either.

“There’s nothing further,” Sawyer said regarding the case.

Sawyer called Choudri “an upstanding citizen, an educator and has lived a lot of life. This incident shouldn’t take away from that at all, especially when a professional prosecutor reviewed it and when there hasn’t been any wrongdoing.”

A general view of the construction site for the California High-Speed Rail Project in Fresno on Aug. 7, 2025. The California High-Speed Rail Authority faces years of delays, missed deadlines, and rising costs.

SFGATE reached out to the rail authority, its chair of the board of directors and the governor’s office for comment on whether Choudri’s role could be impacted. 

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“The High-Speed Rail Authority is aware of the matter and is reviewing it. We have no other comment at this time,” a spokesperson for the California High-Speed Rail Authority said in an email. 

The governor’s office also wrote in an email that it is awaiting more information regarding the incident. It added that Choudri reports to the rail authority and that his role is independent from the governor’s office.

This incident comes amid statewide pressure and national attention on what could be the first high-speed rail project in the country. Newsom has been steadfast about getting the project up and running after mounting criticism about the project’s sluggish progress. The deadline for completion has infamously been pushed back several times over the years, partially due to funding hurdles that have led to delays in construction. Most recently, President Donald Trump’s administration canceled $4 billion in grants allocated to the project during Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s terms. The railway is planning to secure a new private investor instead of relying on federal funding, with the aim of expediting progress and avoiding any more hurdles from the Trump administration. 

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Newsom, who is in his last year of office, has also long promoted clean and renewable energy for the state. The high-speed rail project would be arguably the largest scale clean energy project attached to his name. He and Choudri have celebrated other milestones as the tracks slowly get laid out across the Central Valley. Choudri was appointed to the role in August 2024 to bring his over 30 years of experience in transportation and help reinvigorate the project as it goes onto a new phase in development. At the time, Newsom touted Choudri as “the perfect steward for the next phase of high-speed rail.”

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