DOJ subpoenas California election officials as part of ballooning voter fraud probes

The subpoenas reviewed by the Chronicle were sent before a federal judge in a separate case gave a stern warning to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who has spearheaded the agency’s attempts to force California to surrender its authority to administer its own elections, to stop threatening local election officials.

At a hearing on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter told Essayli: “This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately.” He repeated the message in a ruling Wednesday denying Essayli’s attempt to force California to sequester 20,000 ballots the DOJ has said could have been sent to noncitizens. “The court reiterates what it said yesterday: these threats must stop,” Carter wrote.

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“Judge Carter’s admonishment about threats directed at election officials on Tuesday was well placed and appreciated,” he said in a statement. “At every step, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach. Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal law. Clear court rulings at both the U.S. District Court level and the Court of Appeals have confirmed that. Threats and intimidation have no place in elections. We will take whatever steps necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and to remain focused on serving the voters of Los Angeles County so they can exercise their voting franchise.”

His office received three federal grand jury subpoenas last week from Essayli and agents with Homeland Security Investigations, the unit the Trump administration has tasked with leading criminal investigations into suspected voter fraud. The subpoenas ask individual election officials to turn over any information that “tends to indicate an alien has voted in a federal election” and that indicates “someone has aided and/or abetted an alien voting in a federal election.”

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The subpoenas also seek the registrar’s office’s methods for preventing voting by noncitizens.

The most recent subpoena to Orange County, sent Oct. 23 and received Thursday, according to a date stamp, asks for the unredacted voter records for some 60 individuals from January 2017 through the present.

In L.A. County, officials were directed to appear with the requested materials at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana on Nov. 4, one day after the election. In Orange County, the appearance date is Nov. 18.

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A spokesperson for Santa Clara County said its registrar of voters received two federal subpoenas in September, but did not immediately provide copies.

Carter said in his Wednesday ruling that taken together, the DOJ’s actions in California represent “a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials.”

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Citing Carter’s demand that federal officials cease threatening local election workers, Becker added, “In response, the DOJ has doubled down.”

(*) Full article: https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/doj-subpoenas-california-election-officials-012354779.html