The Department of Justice is raising the level of pressure day after day by launching a criminal investigation into the “non-citizen voting allegations” that the Donald Trump administration has been claiming, while also issuing formal subpoenas to officials.
According to records obtained by the NYT, the U.S. Department of Justice issued federal grand jury subpoenas to at least two Los Angeles (LA) election officials, requiring them to appear in court on the morning of November 4, the day after the midterm elections.
A grand jury subpoena is a legal procedure in which the Ministry of Justice requests testimony or the submission of relevant materials during a criminal investigation.
The Department of Justice reportedly requested the court appearance of officials, along with materials regarding internal communication records of California’s election authorities, methods for identifying illegal foreign votes, and measures to prevent non-citizen votes from being counted.
The New York Times reported, citing sources, that federal marshals went to the official’s home to deliver a summons again, even though the official had already received the summons at his office.
In a statement on the day, Dean Logan, Director of the Los Angeles County Voter Registration Office, condemned the Department of Justice’s issuance of subpoenas as “intimidation” and stated, “Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal laws.”
The Department of Justice has recently been continuing to pressure state authorities in California, the most populous region in the U.S., claiming that many illegal voters are registered on the state’s voter rolls.
In a letter sent last week to local election officials, the Department of Justice notified them that failure to cooperate in identifying suspected non-citizens on voter rolls and separating their ballots could result in a “significant level of federal investigation.”
Bill Essale, the chief federal attorney in Los Angeles, also said, “Any election official who handles these ballots knowing they belong to non-citizens will expose themselves to legal risk.”
The Department of Justice also filed a preliminary injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, asking that 20,000 mail-in ballots suspected of being from non-citizens in California not be counted.
The court dismissed the request for an injunction, stating, “The administration’s demand to suspend the counting of 20,000 votes at once causes chaos in the ongoing election and undermines the value of American citizens’ votes.”