The Trump administration has launched a criminal investigation into California’s voter systems amid claims from the president that polls showing an anticipated blue wave are ‘rigged.’
The Department of Justice issued grand jury subpoenas last week to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed to the Daily Mail.
The office has been instructed to provide voter roll records for individuals the Justice Department appears to suspect lack citizenship, The New York Times reported.
The subpoenas have demanded that employees with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office hand over copies of internal communications and records involving their ‘methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens.’
Local election officials were reportedly told they would ‘risk significant federal scrutiny’ if they did not comply with the subpoenas.
‘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,’ Los Angeles County registrar Dean Logan told the Daily Mail in a statement.
‘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.’
The fight between Los Angeles County election officials and the Department of Justice (DOJ) began earlier this month when local workers received a thumb drive containing ‘sensitive and personal identifiable information’ on over 20,000 individuals, according to court documents.
Two employees at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office have reportedly been subpoenaed by the Justice Department
Early voting has already kicked off in California in the US midterm elections
The DOJ argued the individuals were ‘likely noncitizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot’ and asked election officials to confirm the information within 48 hours.
The county responded that they could not verify the individuals’ citizenship within the deadline, and the DOJ subsequently filed the lawsuit.
US District Judge David Carter denied the request on Wednesday, writing that the decision was ‘about the right of every American citizen to vote in a free and fair election.’
‘Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,’ he wrote.
Carter added that the legal action was ‘indicative of a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials.’
The Justice Department has also announced charges involving ’48 aliens’ in five states, including California, in connection with fraudulent voting earlier this week.
As the Trump administration doubles down on election interference, the president has rallied for Republicans across multiple races, claiming that polls showing Democrats leading are rigged.
Pollsters have predicted a blue wave ahead of this year’s midterms, as Democrats hope to flip the Senate and the House.
Election officials in Los Angeles County have received the subpoenas as early voting is underway. California Governor Gavin Newsom has not acknowledged the new report
Senate Republicans in deep-red Mississippi and Kansas face unexpectedly competitive races from Democrats, while GOP House incumbents in Colorado and Minnesota also battle well-funded opponents.
More than a dozen Senate seats are polling within the margin of error, but Democrats Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico lead by seven and six points, respectively, according to recent CNN polls.
Trump has dismissed the negative outlook, calling the polls showing Democrats in the lead ‘rigged’ during a recent interview on Newsmax.
He argued that the positive polling for Democrats was a strategy to discourage his base from voting.
‘Well, if they said you’re going to lose by three or four points, people will vote,’ he continued. ‘If they say you’re going to lose by 17, nobody goes out to vote.’
Trump continued that he wants his base to ignore the polls and ‘pretend’ that he’s on the ballot.
Election guru Nate Silver recently predicted in an interview with The New York Times that if Democrats sweep the midterms, it could ‘mark the end of the Trump era.’
‘The most regular trend in American elections, one of the few things that survives for decades is there is a backlash against the president’s party at the midterm,’ he argued.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the DOJ, White House and Newsom’s office for comment.
