A federal prosecutor in California said Friday that authorities have launched investigations tied to the state’s recent elections following President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said Friday morning on X that his office was pursuing “multiple election fraud investigations” alongside the FBI, without providing details.
“We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent,” said Essayli, who criticized California’s mail voting — a frequent target of Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Asked about the investigations announced by Essayli, Laura Eimiller, a spokesperson for the FBI in L.A., told NBC News Saturday that “while the FBI does investigate election violations, the FBI doesn’t confirm or deny the existence of investigations as a rule.”
Around the same time as Essayli’s post, a federal prosecutor from the U.S. attorney’s office visited the ballot processing center for Los Angeles County, the L.A. County registrar’s office told NBC News on Friday.
The registrar’s office said it was notified late Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office would be sending a government attorney to “observe ballot processing activities.”
“The individual arrived this morning, was provided an overview of the public observation program, and participated in a walkthrough of the ballot processing operations,” a spokesperson for the registrar said Friday.
The spokesperson said that ballot processing is open to public observation and that election officials “routinely host observers representing a wide range of interests” including politicians, advocacy groups or members of the public.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the prosecutor’s visit.
The developments come a day after Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats are “trying to steal” the California primary elections, which took place Tuesday.
“There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???”
Under California’s vote-by-mail system, it often takes several days for a winner to be announced in competitive races. Ballots postmarked on or before election day and received within seven days after the election are eligible to be counted, according to state laws.
In 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, was not announced as the winner until eight days after election day. Bass is seeking another term and has advanced to the November election, NBC News projects.
Mail ballots, which are counted over a series of days, often favor Democratic candidates in the blue-leaning state.
Under California’s system, the top two candidates in the primary race move on to the general election in November, regardless of what party they belong to.
But as the count drags on for primary races across the state, Trump and his allies, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, are ramping up their criticism of the vote-counting process.
As of Friday evening, NBC News projected that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra will advance to the general election, with Hilton and Democratic candidate Tom Steyer competing for the second spot.
In the Los Angeles mayor’s race, Trump-endorsed Spencer Pratt is vying with Democrat Nithya Raman to take on Bass in November.
