A day after President Donald Trump alleged widespread cheating in California’s primary, a top prosecutor said the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI are conducting “multiple election fraud investigations” in the state.
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Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney, did not provide any details or specifics of just what is being investigated, but said in a social media post: “We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent.”
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Los Angeles office would not confirm Essayli’s post, but said “suffice to say there are hundreds of fraud allegations in LA alone,” later adding that was not specific to election-related cases.
“You will have to talk to the first assistant if you want to question his statement. The FBI does not comment on fraud allegations that come our way,” said Laura Eimiller.
Vote counting is still underway in California for the June 2 primary election.
Here, every registered voter is mailed a ballot, and they have multiple ways to cast them: in person, at drop boxes or through the mail. Ballots returned via the U.S. Postal Service are still counted so long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day and arrive at the county elections office within seven days.
It’s not so much that vote counting takes a long time; it’s the process, set by state law, which gives voters time to fix a signature challenge on mailed ballot envelopes. This year, that deadline is 5 p.m. on June 24 — and that means election officials cannot certify results at the county level until June 26.
“Accuracy comes before speed,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber said after Trump’s allegations.
“California is the nation’s largest voting state, with millions of ballots to process and count. Taking the time to do this work correctly protects voters’ rights and ensures the integrity of our elections,” Weber said. “California has built a strong system that expands access, empowers voters and ensures more Californians can fully participate in our democracy.”
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…
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) June 5, 2026
Previous claims of widespread fraud in California’s elections have not been substantiated.
A federal prosecutor visited Los Angeles County’s ballot processing center in Industry on Friday, June 5, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California confirmed. A spokesperson did not say whether this was a regularly scheduled visit or part of Essayli’s fraud probe.
“He was sent there by our office to observe the vote counting process,” said Kyle Perez, a spokesperson for the office.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he had people on hand at the facility as well and is “monitoring the situation closely and stands ready to protect voters and ensure California’s election laws are followed.”
As of midday Friday, Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said his office had not been contacted by the Justice Department that a monitor would be popping by, and no one had identified themselves as a lawyer with the department. Elizabeth Florer, a Riverside County Registrar of Voters spokesperson, also said her office had not been visited by a Justice Department representative “in the past two days.”
“Protecting the integrity of California’s elections is a top priority for my office,” Essayli said Friday. “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.”
He said he was also working with Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative lawyer from California who has led the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division since April 2025, to conduct an audit of California’s voter rolls.
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“My office will not look the other way. We will investigate and prosecute,” said Essayli. “Every legal vote deserves to be counted. Every illegal vote cancels one out.”
Justin Levitt, an election law expert who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, chalked up Essayli’s announcement to a bunch of “noise” that was made for “an audience of one,” referring to Trump.
“It is not normal for the U.S. Attorney’s Office to announce investigations when there hasn’t already been public awareness of wrongdoing,” said Levitt, who worked for the Biden administration to “ensure that every eligible American has secure, reliable access to a meaningful vote,” among other things, according to his bio.
“It’s fine for the U.S. Attorney’s Office to conduct investigations; that happens all the time,” Levitt said. “But you can’t offer specifics. You don’t have anything to go on, and the very fact that you’re investigating is ominous, and the public expects, in normal times, when there is an investigation, there is a reason for it.”
“Unfortunately, this administration does not act like normal past administrations, and there are no details of the investigation because there is no misconduct,” he added. “I am profoundly confident there is no wrongdoing to investigate. These investigations will die off quietly. He has already achieved everything he set out to achieve, which is performing a little dance for the president.”
Those sentiments were echoed by the governor’s office.
“Credible prosecutors don’t comment on ongoing investigations, including whether an investigation exists at all – we’re not surprised the First Assistant doesn’t operate similarly,” said Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Trump, earlier this week, railed against California elections in a series of posts, alleging “big cheating” without citing evidence. Long a critic of California’s elections and mail ballots, the president accused Democrats of “trying to steal” gubernatorial and L.A. mayoral elections.
Republican and Trump-endorsed Steve Hilton holds a lead in the race for governor, with Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer still battling it out for that coveted second spot to make the general election runoff.
In the race for the mayor of L.A., reality television personality Spencer Pratt was in second place behind incumbent Karen Bass, a former longtime Democratic member of Congress, according to the latest update of unofficial results. But progressive Councilmember Nithya Raman was getting closer to that No. 2 spot, the latest returns show, as more ballots are received and counted.
Trump, in April, endorsed Hilton in the race for governor, choosing to back the former Fox News personality over Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
And ahead of the June 2 election, Trump said he’d like to see Pratt “do well” in the mayoral contest.
Even if both Hilton and Pratt advance to the November general election, their chances of winning then are slim. Nearly 45% of the 23.2 million registered voters in California are Democrats, and only 25% are Republicans.
Still, Trump alleged that cheating was occurring. A White House spokesperson did not respond to requests for examples.
“Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS,” Trump posted to Truth Social late Wednesday, June 3.
And later Thursday morning, the president said: “Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote.”
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Staff writers Linh Tat and Jeff Horseman contributed to this report.