Fraud Cover Up: California High Speed Rail Legislation to Hide Evidence of Fraud

California’s High-Speed Rail boondoggle is now estimated to cost taxpayers $231 billion, up from its original $33.5 billion price tag in 2008 when voters passed Proposition 1A.

Voters were deceived by the original ballot summary and language in Proposition 1A from 2008, but the state’s lawmakers seem to find that fact inconvenient.

And, the entire project is lacking in private, public and debt funding to complete even the most minor operating segment – nearly 20 years later.

“If it is built, California’s High-Speed Rail would be the largest public works project in state history. That fact alone appears to be intoxicating to state officials, in a perpetual quest to have California be the first state to do anything,” I reported in 2011. That’s how long California’s High Speed Rail has served only as a jobs program and a really bad joke on California voters and taxpayers.

Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) spoke in the California Assembly this week about the High Speed Rail “FRAUD COVERUP” in Assembly Bill 1608 by Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City):

“Instead of stopping the massive fraud happening in state programs at your expense,  CA Democrats are covering it all up by passing AB 1608 to allow the High Speed Rail project to hide evidence of fraud from the public! I confronted them on the Assembly Floor with the receipts!” DeMaio posted to X:

FRAUD COVERUP: Instead of stopping the massive fraud happening in state programs at your expense,  CA Democrats are covering it all up by passing AB 1608 to allow the High Speed Rail project to hide evidence of fraud from the public! I confronted them on the Assembly Floor with… pic.twitter.com/mKf3RhmDmU

— Carl DeMaio (@carldemaio) May 19, 2026

DeMaio is correct. AB 1608 bill analysis by the Assembly Transportation Committee committee reported:

“Authorizes the IG to hold a report it produces, or a portion of that report, confidential for a period of time if it determines that the report, or a portion of the report would describe or otherwise reveal weaknesses, including those involving information security, physical security, fraud detection controls, or pending litigation that would pose a substantial and articulable risk to the project or to state operations if publicly disclosed.”

“No more secrets, no more boondoggles. Cancel the high-speed rail project,” DeMaio said.

“The only legislation that should be coming to this floor regarding the High Speed Rail Boondoggle Project is a law that would cancel the project as quickly as possible and try to mitigate the massive financial losses that taxpayers have suffered,” DeMaio said.

“Instead, this majority brings a bill forward to keep secrets on high speed rail. That’s exactly what this bill does. Now there’s a pattern of behavior in this legislature of saying, ‘Oh no, we’re not trying to keep secrets. We are trying to protect people’s security. There are threats being made and we need this bill. We need to keep secrets because threats are being made.'”

DeMaio continues:

“The bill language actually plays that game. Section 187037 B1: It allows the Inspector General to keep these secrets. The Inspector General may hold a report confidential if the report would describe or reveal a weakness of fraud detection, conflict controls. There it is in black and white.”

“One of the most sensational and alarming conversations going on in this country today is the fraud industry that has embedded itself in government across this country. And it’s particularly bad here in California. Hundreds of billions of dollars since this governor took office with no mitigation. Why? Because we continue to see bureaucracies keep secrets. And this bill would authorize that in the high speed rail project.”

“Now my colleague in promoting this bill said the reason why we need to keep secrets is that, golly, it’s costing us too much money to give the public the truth. The reason why the project is so over budget and behind schedule is that it was sold as $8 billion dollars was needed by taxpayers in 2008. Only $8 [billion], but the private sector would [be] projected to be $230 billion dollars.”

“She said the reason why the project is, you know, having some problems is, quote, ‘We lost a federal funding partner.’ That’s like saying Titanic sank because of leaky toilet.”

“The federal government pulled its money because the project violated terms and conditions of federal funding. And they have violated the terms and conditions voters approved. But we’re just skating by. And now we are trying to keep secrets.”

“There’s a pattern of behavior here: hiding fraud and invoking the threat of public safety. The language here takes the fraud and sandwiches it around what we’re just trying to make sure that we don’t reveal information that might threaten the public.”

In 2019, thousands of pages of public records were removed from the California High Speed Rail Authority website. Members of the media and anyone seeking information about rail authority spending are only able to access previously posted documents like detailed information on every project change order, board meeting materials and historical business plans, through a time consuming and unreliable California Public Records Act request according to the Rail Authority website.

The California State Auditor uncovered rail employees, contractors and consultants with wild conflicts of interest. Then-auditor Elaine Howle allowed the title of the audit to speak for itself: “California High‑Speed Rail Authority: Its Flawed Decision Making and Poor Contract Management Have Contributed to Billions in Cost Overruns and Delays in the System’s Construction.”

The warnings about this epic swindle of taxpayers have been there since its inception, but this has been done with the complicity of the California Legislature and Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom.