Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli is calling on California officials to use a federal citizenship database to verify voter eligibility after an appeals court rejectedPresident Donald Trump administration’s effort to set aside roughly 20,000 ballots tied to suspected noncitizens.
asserted
court → call → noncitizens
In a post on X, Essayli questioned why California could not use the same database it relies on to verify the citizenship of Medi-Cal applicants.
uncertain
it → question → applicants
“This debate over noncitizens on California’s voter rolls could be resolved in under a day if California simply used the same federal database it has relied on for 40 years to confirm Medi-Cal applicants’ citizenship,” Essayli wrote.
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Essayli → resolve → citizenship
He also claimed 34 other states already use the database to check voter eligibility and argued California could quickly submit its unredacted voter rolls for review.
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California → claim → review
“California has raised no issues with this database for Medi-Cal, so why not use it to check voter eligibility,” he wrote.
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he → raise → eligibility
Essayli emphasized that noncitizens are prohibited from voting under both state and federal law, and said checking the voter rolls would help restore confidence in the election results.
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checking → emphasize → results
“What is California afraid of?” he asked.
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he → ask → What
His comments came after the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a lower court’s decision rejecting the Justice Department’s emergency request to separate the disputed ballots.
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Court → come → ballots
In a 2–1 ruling, the appeals court found that doing so could disrupt Tuesday’s midterm elections and potentially prevent eligible voters from having their votes counted.
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votes → find → voters
Trump also criticized the ruling Saturday, taking to Truth Social to defend Essayli and accuse the court of standing in the way of his administration’s efforts to address alleged election fraud.
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Trump → criticize → fraud
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 wrote.
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Trump → catch → it
The president also criticized the Senate’s blue-slip process, which allows senators to weigh in on nominees from their states and has complicated Essayli’s path to becoming a Senate-confirmed US attorney.
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senators → criticize → attorney
“We are going to continue our yearslong fight on Election Integrity,” Trump concluded.
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Trump → go → Integrity
The Justice Department has argued federal officials identified more than 20,000 likely noncitizens registered to vote in California, although those allegations have not established that 20,000 illegal votes were cast.
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votes → argue → California
The administration sued California after Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan declined to comply with federal demands to review the disputed registrations within the requested timeframe.
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Weber → sue → timeframe
US District Judge David O. Carter rejected the administration’s emergency request Wednesday, warning it could disrupt the election and disenfranchise eligible voters.
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it → reject → voters
One appeals court judge dissented from Friday’s ruling, arguing California’s refusal to separate the ballots undermined federal efforts to prevent illegal voting.
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refusal → dissent → voting
Last week, Essayli warned potentially ineligible voters could already be casting ballots as election workers processed mail-in votes across the state.
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workers → warn → 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.
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he → look → County
“So this is going on as we speak.”
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we → go → ?
“Every minute that goes by, American citizen votes are being diluted in the state of California,” Essayli added.
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Essayli → go → California
“It’s an emergency, and we expect the courts to treat it as such.”
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courts → ’ → it
Trump’s public defense of Essayli comes as the prosecutor faces a separate legal battle over his authority to lead the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
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prosecutor → come → California
Senior US District Judge John Michael Seabright ruled Tuesday that Essayli was unlawfully serving as a de facto US attorney, finding that the Trump administration could not bypass federal appointment requirements by assigning him successive titles and delegating the powers of the top prosecutor.
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administration → rule → prosecutor
The ruling bars Essayli from participating in or supervising two criminal prosecutions, although the judge delayed the order while the government pursues a stay pending appeal.
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government → bar → appeal
Seabright also declined to dismiss the indictments in those cases.
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Seabright → decline → cases
Essayli was initially appointed acting US attorney last year.
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Essayli → appoint → ?
Before the 120-day limit expired, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed him first assistant US attorney, allowing him to remain in charge of the office without a Senate-confirmed replacement.
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him → expire → replacement
Essayli has vowed to challenge the ruling, saying the Supreme Court will ultimately decide the matter.
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Court → vow → matter
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