Trump's DOJ Charges 28 With Voting Crimes, Asks Judge to Halt Flagged Ballots

Prosecutors say 28 green card holders registered or voted illegally. They want ballots from 20,000-plus flagged registrants left uncounted until checked.

Federal agents began arresting California green card holders early Monday on charges that they illegally registered to vote, and in some cases voted, ABC7 reported. The same day, the Justice Department went further. It asked a federal judge in Los Angeles to stop the state from processing ballots returned by more than 20,000 registrants it calls "likely noncitizens."

Twenty-eight people face charges. The court request covers a list roughly 700 times that long. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said in a statement that every one of the 28 defendants came off that list, and he wants California to check the citizenship of all 20,000-plus before mail ballots are counted, MyNewsLA reported.

One of the arrests happened in Commerce, where ABC7's helicopter was overhead as agents moved in Monday morning, the station reported. Officials allege the man cast ballots on four occasions from 2020 through 2024, and they say he has an extensive criminal record. Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said at least 11 people were in custody by the morning news conference, and the rest were expected soon.

The department calls the sweep Operation Protect the Vote, and it runs through all four U.S. attorney districts in California. It came out of a fight that's been building for a week. A department letter to Los Angeles County, copied to Registrar Dean Logan and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, warned that processing ballots from suspected noncitizens could expose election officials to criminal investigation, ABC7 reported.

Logan and Weber's office refused to separate those ballots and leave them uncounted, which led the department to sue the state and the county, MyNewsLA reported. In Monday's request for a temporary restraining order, government lawyers argued that California had made clear it's "committed to treating ballots from those likely non-citizens equal to ballots from American citizens."

State officials have doubted Washington's numbers before. In July, according to Weber's office, Washington told California that 190,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in the state, then wouldn't back the number up when the state asked for proof. This time, officials said, the Department of Homeland Security built the list by matching public voter registration records against other government databases, ABC7 reported. Essayli wrote on X on Friday that California is "free to check the work," and that the state had "already mailed ballots to them."

So far this year, the Justice Department has brought election-misconduct cases against roughly 90 people, and 50 of those cases accuse noncitizens of casting ballots, according to ABC7. The department has also pointed to research and multistate investigations showing that it's extremely rare for noncitizens to vote, the station reported.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the arrests "voter intimidation" in a post on X and urged people to vote anyway, by mail or at a drop box. McCotter brushed off criticism that the timing would shake confidence in the election, telling reporters that the charges make sure citizens' votes count the way they should.

Logan has said legal disputes over the flagged ballots should be settled in court. That's where they are now, and no hearing had been scheduled as of Monday, MyNewsLA reported.

Source: NPR, retrieved October 20, 2026. Other sources: mynewsla.com, abc7.com, kpbs.org.