Election ballots at the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters office in Sacramento on June 7, 2022. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
Last Wednesday, a federal judge issued a blistering order warning federal prosecutors to stop threatening California election officials with crimes.
A day later, federal prosecutors kept going.
At least four elections workers in California have received federal criminal grand jury subpoenas over the past week, with at least one delivered on Thursday after the court’s order.
In that subpoena, issued to the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ office, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security are seeking unredacted voter records for 60 people, according to records obtained by CalMatters.
The subpoenas signal an intensification of the federal government’s unprecedented targeting of California’s elections, setting up what could be a showdown over the fundamentals of American democracy around the midterm elections.
The prosecutors include those in the office of Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, a leading aide in President Donald Trump’s push to find evidence to support longstanding — and never proven — claims that California elections are rigged in Democrats’ favor due to noncitizen votes.
Bloomberg Law first reported last Thursday that U.S. Justice…
