DOJ Announces Multiple California Election Fraud Investigations, Voter Rolls Audit Advances to Ninth Circuit

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed Friday that his office is conducting multiple active election fraud investigations in coordination with the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. 

In a public statement, Essayli said: “Protecting the integrity of California’s elections is a top priority for my office. California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence.”

Without naming specific cases, Essayli pledged to “follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent.” His office is also teaming up with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon on a sweeping audit of the state’s voter rolls, a probe the Golden State has fought tooth and nail. The state has resisted efforts to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered, and the matter is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The state has stonewalled every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote,” he wrote. “My office will not look the other way. We will investigate and prosecute. Every legal vote deserves to be counted. Every illegal vote cancels one out.”

This isn’t Essayli’s first rodeo on election integrity. When he served in the California State Assembly, he was removed from the Democrat-led Elections Committee after advocating for voter ID and election integrity measures. 

California Globe reporting has documented persistent issues with out-of-state ballots under the state’s universal mail-in system. Just yesterday we reported on a Virginia resident who contacted the Secretary of State’s office twice over a decade requesting that ballots stop being sent to his former California address, yet they continued to arrive. Such cases highlight ongoing challenges with voter roll maintenance in a system that automatically mails ballots to registered voters without ID verification. 

Essayli’s announcement today follows prior DOJ actions. Federal prosecutors recently charged a Marina del Rey woman with paying homeless individuals to register to vote using fake addresses, or using her address  to register them to vote. Her fraudulent operation spanned decades, until undercover journalists exposed the scheme.

In a related development, Judicial Watch recently filed a federal lawsuit against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, alleging that 873,092 voter registrations have remained continuously inactive for at least two general federal elections, and some for stretching far beyond federal statute. The suit was brought on behalf of plaintiffs Don Wagner, an Orange County Supervisor and Republican candidate for Secretary of State, and the American Independent Party of California.

California operates one of the nation’s most expansive vote-by-mail and ballot-harvesting systems, enacted by the Democratic supermajority Legislature and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, the state has faced documented fraud across multiple government sectors, including public contracting, unemployment insurance, SNAP, healthcare programs, and infrastructure spending—including the ~$300M high-speed bullet train.

Critics point to the obvious disparity: California has documented fraud across numerous government entities, yet California Democrats insist election fraud is almost nonexistent.

As primary election results in several high-profile races remain in the tabulation phase that will take weeks, President Donald Trump weighed in on the issue Thursday, stating on Truth Social: “The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS. There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???”

Trump also told reporters that Democrats are “rigging the election” in California.

Newsom’s office responded:“Trump is lying about California again — time to take the phone away from grandpa and put him to sleep.”

The governor’s press office followed up with an additional post addressing the slow vote count: “There is a lot of misinformation floating around about California’s election — including from the President.”

They shared a CNN explainer video on the state’s vote-by-mail process and added: “And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too.”

The Globe will continue to follow and report on the ongoing litigation and primary election,