The Department of Justice on Thursday issued grand jury subpoenas to local election officials in California as part of its criminal investigation into the state’s voter rolls, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The move escalates the Trump administration’s clash with states over how elections are run just days before the midterm elections.
The subpoenas come as part of the administration’s effort to prove its claims that California has thousands of noncitizens on its voter rolls.
Some employees with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office received grand jury subpoenas last week, which demand their testimony on Nov. 4, the day after the election.
Those subpoenas, which have been reviewed by ABC News, also ask for any internal documents or communications about the federal government’s requests to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber for information about “noncitizen voting” along with any information or records “relating to or involving your agency’s methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens.”
Earlier this month, DOJ threatened to criminally prosecute election workers who knowingly tabulate ballots belonging to noncitizen voters. In a letter to Los Angeles officials, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter wrote that “noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful.”
The New York Times first reported on the subpoenas to election officials in California.
In an order Wednesday, a federal judge in California rejected DOJ’s push for an emergency order to have California segregate roughly 20,000 ballots belonging to individuals the Trump administration has claimed are “likely” noncitizens.
“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,” U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote in his Wednesday order.
“Judge Carter’s admonishment about threats directed at election officials on Tuesday was well placed and appreciated. 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,” Dean Logan, the L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk said in a statement to ABC News.
“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,” he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said: “The Department of Justice does not comment on leaks about alleged grand jury subpoenas.”
The statement added: “But to be clear, the district court judge explained that voting unlawfully results in criminal exposure. Consistent with this, California also wrote in its filing that the remedy for unlawful voting is through criminal prosecution. Thus, while DOJ maintains that a civil remedy is still available, all agree that noncitizen voting is properly addressed through criminal law.”
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