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Trump administration threatens to prosecute local California election workers

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Cite

Barr, L., Mallin, A., Bruggeman, L., & Doshi, J. (2026, October 17). Trump administration threatens to prosecute local California election workers. ABC News (US). https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-administration-threatens-prosecute-local-california-election-workers/story?id=137339732

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

ABC News (US) · collected 2026-10-17 · by Luke Barr, Alexander Mallin, Lucien Bruggeman, Juhi Doshi

Quick Summary

The Trump administration has warned local California election workers that they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly process ballots cast by noncitizens. In a letter addressed to Los Angeles officials, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter stated that such actions would be aiding in federal crimes since noncitizen voting is illegal under U.S. law. This follows the Justice Department’s lawsuit against California for allegedly failing to remove non-citizens from voter rolls and demands by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin earlier this year for election officials to face penalties, including prison time, if found facilitating noncitizen voting.
Written by AI on 2026-10-17, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

As of October 18, 2026, the US Justice Department has sued California and threatened local election officials with imprisonment for counting mail ballots from over 20,000 people suspected of being noncitizens. On October 13, Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter sent letters to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan demanding they review a list of potential noncitizen voters provided on a password-protected thumb drive by the federal government. The department warned that officials could face prosecution if they do not verify the citizenship status of these individuals before counting their ballots for the November 3 midterm elections. California and Los Angeles County have resisted opening the drive, prompting heightened tensions between state and federal authorities ahead of the election.

Written for “Trump Administration Sues California Over Noncitizen Voting” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 15 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Trump Administration Sues California Over Noncitizen Voting
Politics · 16 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 19% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
New York Post
⚖️ Leans strongly right Hedges 3 of 20 claims Outlet record 66/100
The Guardian
⚖️ Leans strongly right Hedges 2 of 11 claims Outlet record 66/100
Toronto Star
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 0 of 2 claims Outlet record 64/100
The Straits Times
Hedges 2 of 18 claims Outlet record 66/100
The Straits Times
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 2 of 17 claims Outlet record 66/100
Washington Examiner
Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 69/100
Fox News
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 16 claims Outlet record 68/100
“The articles describe two distinct actions by the Trump administration regarding voter data and election workers, occurring on different days.”
CBS News
⚖️ Leans strongly left Hedges 5 of 121 claims Outlet record 65/100
The Hindu
Hedges 1 of 11 claims Outlet record 77/100
“Article A discusses a threat of prosecution against local election workers for noncitizen voting, while Article B reports on specific charges and arrests of individuals for election fraud.”
New York Post
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 5 of 24 claims Outlet record 66/100
“Article A describes a threat of prosecution from the Trump administration against local election workers, while Article B reports on an arrest and confession in what is described as California's largest voter fraud bust involving noncitizens.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
19%
4 of 21 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
67/100
ABC News (US)'s corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
16
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-17 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

ABC News (US) · 1351 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Luke Barr
32 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 We will not be intimidated by a sham investigation."
🔮 DOJ warns state election officials they could face jail time if they fail to preserve records The Justice Department sent letters to election officials in multiple states.
🔮 A House Democrat is asking congressional appropriators for guardrails that would prevent President Donald Trump from exploiting a loophole in federal law to buy the East Potomac Golf Course that he's been pushing to renovate with taxpyer funds.
🔮 I'm frustrated that I got it in the middle of the night, but I'm much more concerned that it's filed on the public record." The assistant U.S. attorney in the hearing, John Borchert, struggled repeatedly as Faruqui asked him to explain the government's conduct, which the judge said was unlike any case he had ever seen in the history of D.C.'s district court. Faruqui ultimately granted the request from Flores' and Benavides' attorneys to strike the amended complaint from the docket and said he would continue Tuesday's hearing to determine whether prosecutors established probable cause in their initial complaint filed last week. "Why today on this one case have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?" Faruqui asked of Borchert.
🔮 She could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
🔮 Unglesbee said he knew recipients of white powder letters 'took it serious and would have 'hazmat come in white suits' because 'anthrax is dangerous.'
🔮 The Justice Department is asking election officials in Washington state to set aside hundreds of ballots it says may belong to noncitizen voters, the latest move by the Trump administration to intervene in a state-run election just days before the midterms.
🔮 A federal judge has ordered a top Department of Justice official back into court after President Donald Trump posted on his social media account affirming that East Potomac Golf Course will close Nov. 15 for renovations — directly contradicting repeated assertions from administration officials in a hearing last week.
🔮 The report lays out a series of warning behaviors and signs that are typical for those who might carry out targeted workplace violence, like a 22-year-old service member who "experienced multiple stressors, including chronic pain resulting from a motorcycle accident, the ailing health of a loved one, harassment from peers, and numerous reprimands and citations at work due to poor performance and tardiness," before carrying out an attack that killed two on base and injured a third person.
🔮 In a follow-up post resharing the letter, Trump wrote "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!"
Also by Luke Barr
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 32 articles by Luke Barr →
Alexander Mallin
23 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 We will not be intimidated by a sham investigation."
🔮 Judge says court will investigate government officials in DC golf course case The judge wants to know if lawyers tried to mislead her over Trump's plans.
🔮 Attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey are set to appear in court in Washington, D.C., Friday in their emergency push to have a federal judge dismiss the criminal allegations lodged against him by the Justice Department that accuse him of allegedly mishandling classified information more than a decade ago.
🔮 A House Democrat is asking congressional appropriators for guardrails that would prevent President Donald Trump from exploiting a loophole in federal law to buy the East Potomac Golf Course that he's been pushing to renovate with taxpyer funds.
🔮 "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.
🔮 Bill Essayli, a controversial Trump-installed leader of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California, argued in the hearing that the administration was simply pushing for the state to be in compliance with federal law barring non-citizens from casting votes. But state officials and other legal advocates opposing the DOJ lawsuit countered that the litigation violated longstanding Constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections -- and could have chaotic consequences for the state in tabulating final vote counts in the weeks ahead.
🔮 I'm frustrated that I got it in the middle of the night, but I'm much more concerned that it's filed on the public record." The assistant U.S. attorney in the hearing, John Borchert, struggled repeatedly as Faruqui asked him to explain the government's conduct, which the judge said was unlike any case he had ever seen in the history of D.C.'s district court. Faruqui ultimately granted the request from Flores' and Benavides' attorneys to strike the amended complaint from the docket and said he would continue Tuesday's hearing to determine whether prosecutors established probable cause in their initial complaint filed last week. "Why today on this one case have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?" Faruqui asked of Borchert.
🔮 She could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
🔮 "The United States seeks a court order to prevent Defendants from certifying the result of the November 2026 United States Senate election if '(1) [Dan S.] Sullivan does not win the election; and (2) had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast instead for [Dan S.] Sullivan and Alaska's rank-choice process played out accordingly, [Dan S.] Sullivan would have won the election.'"
🔮 Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California The court sent the suit back to a district court, which will hear it on Tuesday.
Also by Alexander Mallin
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 23 articles by Alexander Mallin →
Lucien Bruggeman
12 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 DOJ warns state election officials they could face jail time if they fail to preserve records The Justice Department sent letters to election officials in multiple states.
🔮 "I did not know whether I might be arrested or what might happen next," Diaz said.
🔮 Judge David Carter, the federal judge assigned to the case, rejected the Justice Department's push for an emergency intervention based in part on what he called the administration's "unreliability" and "lack of credibility." Late last week, separate from its litigation against the state, the DOJ sent letters to every California county asking local elections officials to help identify potential voters who may be in the U.S. illegally, according to a letter described to ABC News. "Within 48 hours, we ask that you commit to working with DOJ and DHS to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not," according to the letter sent by Justice Department officials.
🔮 About 6 in 10 Americans are confident the midterm elections will be conducted fairly and accurately, while nearly 4 in 10 Americans and about 3 in 10 voters are not confident , according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel.
🔮 The Justice Department is asking election officials in Washington state to set aside hundreds of ballots it says may belong to noncitizen voters, the latest move by the Trump administration to intervene in a state-run election just days before the midterms.
🔮 In a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels accused California of "willful blindness."
🔮 During a press conference on Monday, Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter attracted some scrutiny when he acknowledged that the administration's list likely included errors, and that "there may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens.
🔮 In a follow-up post resharing the letter, Trump wrote "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!"
🔮 President Donald Trump will once again meet with the top investors in his namesake meme coin in November -- the third such gathering since his return to office -- in what critics call yet another example of the president attempting to profit from his position.
Also by Lucien Bruggeman
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 12 articles by Lucien Bruggeman →
Juhi Doshi
6 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Democratic women could make history in midterm governor and House races They're chasing a record number of governorships and 100 House seats.
🔮 In a follow-up post resharing the letter, Trump wrote "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!"
🔮 With less than a month until Election Day, former President Barack Obama is sharply increasing his role in the midterm elections, raising money, cutting ads and hitting the campaign trail as Democrats press into territory he says he never expected to compete in.
🔮 Greene-Placentia told the news outlet she reported the assault to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and that she chose to tell her story because she had been talking about fighting for Arizona residents while campaigning "and I didn't feel like I could keep saying that if I weren't also fighting for women that are victims of sexual assault."
🔮 Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna are heading to California to rally Saturday in support of an initiative that would place a one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of billionaires in the state.
🔮 Fresh off his visit to Texas and Oklahoma, President Donald Trump will rally supporters in Mobile, Alabama, on Friday night.
Also by Juhi Doshi
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 6 articles by Juhi Doshi →

Topics

California DOJ Los Angeles State The Justice Department's

Subjects

California GPE · 7× Trump PERSON · 7× DOJ ORG · 3× McCotter PERSON · 3× State ORG · 2× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× Homeland Security ORG · 1× Los Angeles GPE · 1× The Justice Department's ORG · 1× Trent McCotter PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Earlier this week, McCotter sent letters to the Los Angeles County Clerk and California Secretary of State demanding California voting officials access a password-protected thumb drive that DOJ officials said contained thousands of names of potential non-citizens believed to be on the state's voter registration list.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-17
🔮 In a follow-up post resharing the letter, Trump wrote "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!"

Claims (21 extracted, 4 hedged)

Trump administration threatens to prosecute local California election workers The DOJ sued over claims the state hasn't purged noncitizens from voter rolls. uncertain
state → threaten → rolls
The Trump administration is escalating its feud with California over allegations of noncitizen voting, threatening on Friday to criminally prosecute election workers who knowingly tabulate ballots belonging to noncitizen voters. asserted
who → escalate → voters
"The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant," Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general, wrote in a letter to Los Angeles officials. asserted
McCotter → facilitate → officials
"Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime--and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful." asserted
facilitating → facilitate → conduct
McCotter continued: "If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime." asserted
they → continue → crime
President Donald Trump reposted the letter to his social media platform. asserted
Trump → reposte → platform
In a follow-up post resharing the letter, Trump wrote "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!" asserted
They → reshare → time
The Justice Department's threat to hold election workers criminally liable for noncitizen voting is not the Trump administration's first such salvo. asserted
workers → hold → voting
Over the summer, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin similarly warned that election officials "can be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even depending on how far it goes, prison time." asserted
it → warn → penalties
Trump has made the issue of noncitizen voting a personal fixation despite scant evidence that it is widespread. asserted
it → make → evidence
The Justice Department has promoted dozens of arrests in recent weeks of alleged noncitizens who have voted in past cycles. asserted
who → promote → cycles
But even those examples fall far short of the sort of figures that would tilt the scales in any outcomes. asserted
that → fall → outcomes
McCotter's threat to prosecute local election officials comes one day after the DOJ sued California over claims that the state has refused to purge noncitizens from its voter rolls. uncertain
state → prosecute → rolls
Earlier this week, McCotter sent letters to the Los Angeles County Clerk and California Secretary of State demanding California voting officials access a password-protected thumb drive that DOJ officials said contained thousands of names of potential non-citizens believed to be on the state's voter registration list. asserted
officials → send → list
The letters gave a two-day deadline for the officials to confirm they were conducting a review and also moving to segregate any potential ballots that may have been returned from individuals whose names were on the thumb drive. uncertain
names → give → drive
California characterized the request as legally baseless and a last-ditch effort by the Trump administration to intervene in the state's election process. asserted
California → characterize → process
"The USDOJ's relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states' protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections," California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said. asserted
Weber → gain → State
Experts overwhelmingly agree the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed. asserted
lawsuit → agree → ?
But they fear the consequences of publicly calling election outcomes into question could damage confidence in democracy. uncertain
consequences → fear → democracy
Sean Morales Doyle, a voting expert at the Brennan Center, told ABC News on Friday that the Trump administration appears to be "laying the groundwork to challenge results after Election Day. asserted
administration → tell → Day
" "They're putting a nail in the wall for something to hang their hat on later," Morales Doyle said. asserted
Doyle → put → hat
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