Trump Threatens Jail for California Officials Over Illegal Voting Claims
President Trump warns of criminal charges against California officials over alleged noncitizen voting, as DOJ sues state over voter roll data.
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President Donald Trump has warned California election officials of potential jail time if they include mail-in ballots from individuals reportedly identified as potential noncitizens in their midterm election tallies. In a post on Truth Social, Trump vowed, “They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!”
Trump shared a copy of a letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent to the Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office, which outlined “significant” consequences for “facilitating or ignoring” the “federal crime” of illegally voting in a federal election. The DOJ had previously provided state and local election officials with a USB drive containing voter roll citizenship data, giving the state 48 hours to compare 20,000 names flagged by the Department of Homeland Security as non-U.S. citizens with its own data rolls.
California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom responded to the civil complaint, calling it a “sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day.” Newsom emphasized that the federal government has no role in how a state carries out its election process, and accused the DOJ of asking local officials to violate federal law.
Earlier this year, Trump claimed that California, along with three other states, had 250,000 noncitizens on their voter rolls, a number disputed by his opponents. The DOJ’s actions have also drawn legal challenges, with a group called the UCLA Voting Rights Project suing the DOJ and Department of Homeland Security over the methodology used to compile the list of potential noncitizens.
The group argued that the DOJ’s actions violate the National Voter Registration Act and other laws, and threatened to seek a temporary restraining order if the Trump administration did not abandon its plans for a criminal crackdown on California officials. The situation highlights the ongoing tensions between federal and state authorities over election integrity and voter registration practices.
Source: Breitbart
