President Trump is intensifying his dispute with California election officials, criticizing a federal court’s decision to reject his administration’s attempt to set aside approximately 20,000 ballots linked to suspected noncitizens while praising Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor.
Trump addressed the issue Saturday in a Truth Social post following several legal setbacks for the Justice Department. He called First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli one of the nation’s best prosecutors and accused the court of blocking an effort to address what he described as election fraud.
The president also promised to continue challenging California’s election procedures, with the dispute over voter registrations emerging as a major flashpoint days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
In the lengthy post, Trump criticized both the court’s ruling and the Senate confirmation process affecting Essayli’s position. He referred to the so-called blue-slip process as a “SCAM.”
Trump called Essayli “one of the best, EVER!” and claimed the prosecutor had identified a large number of illegal votes, suggesting the total could eventually reach hundreds of thousands or even millions.
“So, in Los Angeles, our Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California (and various other titles which were forced upon us by the ridiculous Blue Slip SCAM where nobody can get confirmed without the Dumocrats’ approval — which is IMPOSSIBLE to get in that they are all Trump Deranged Lunatics!), Bill Essayli, has done a fantastic job,” Trump wrote.
“He is one of the best, EVER! He caught a massive number of Illegal Votes, 20,000, but potentially Hundreds of Thousands, and maybe even Millions, and the Court has just ruled against it.”
Trump compared the ruling with his failed legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election, claiming the Supreme Court declined to hear one of his cases because he lacked standing.
“We are going to continue our yearslong fight on Election Integrity,” Trump concluded.
Trump’s remarks followed Friday’s decision by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the Justice Department’s emergency request to require California election officials to separate ballots associated with about 20,000 people the administration suspects are not US citizens.
In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court upheld a lower court’s rejection of the request. The panel said there was no practical method for identifying and isolating the disputed ballots without risking disruption to the broader election system.
The administration has maintained that federal officials identified more than 20,000 likely noncitizens registered to vote in California and that those ballots should be set aside until the individuals’ citizenship could be verified.
The Justice Department sued California after Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan declined to review the names within the timeframe demanded by federal officials.
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US District Judge David O. Carter rejected the emergency request Wednesday, warning that separating the ballots could interfere with the election and disenfranchise eligible voters.
The appeals court ruling represents another setback for Trump’s effort to intervene in California’s election administration ahead of Tuesday’s midterms. One judge dissented, arguing that the state’s refusal to separate the ballots hindered federal efforts to prevent illegal voting.
Essayli has played a prominent role in the administration’s clash with California over the disputed voter list.
Last week, he warned that potentially ineligible voters could already be casting ballots as election workers processed mail-in votes throughout the state.
“If you look at California’s own papers, they said they’ve already processed over 300,000 ballots just for LA County,” he told the California Post Saturday. “So this is going on as we speak.”
Essayli also argued that each day California continued processing ballots without verifying the disputed registrations placed legitimate votes at risk.
“Every minute that goes by, American citizen votes are being diluted in the state of California,” Essayli said last week. “It’s an emergency, and we expect the courts to treat it as such.”
Trump’s defense of Essayli comes as the prosecutor faces a separate legal challenge over whether he may lawfully continue leading the US attorney’s office for the Central District of California.
Senior US District Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled Tuesday that Essayli was unlawfully serving as a de facto US attorney. The judge concluded that the Trump administration could not evade federal appointment requirements by assigning Essayli successive titles and delegating the authority of the district’s top prosecutor.
The ruling prevents Essayli from taking part in or supervising two criminal prosecutions, though Seabright delayed its implementation while the government seeks a stay pending appeal. The judge also declined to dismiss the indictments in those cases.
Essayli was first appointed acting US attorney last year. Before the 120-day limit expired, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed him first assistant US attorney, enabling him to continue running the office without a Senate-confirmed successor.
Essayli has pledged to challenge the ruling, saying the dispute will ultimately reach the Supreme Court.
