California: Trump DOJ makes shocking admissions; taken to task for latest allegations of voter fraud

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Oct 20, 2026

Trump DOJ makes shocking admissions; taken to task for latest allegations of voter fraud

What you need to know: Claims of widespread voter fraud by the Trump Administration in California began unraveling on Monday.

How we got here

For nearly a decade, Trump has baselessly alleged mass voter fraud rings were employed by Democrats and utilized "illegal immigrants" to sway elections across the country — often pointing to California.

Courts at all levels have rejected the claims of vast voter fraud or that elections were rigged against the President.

Earlier this summer, newly appointed Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin sent a letter to California election officials claiming there may be as many as 190,000 "illegal" voters on California's voter rolls — no evidence or sources were provided despite California officials asking.

Last week, the Trump DOJ, without coordination or as much as a heads up, sent a USB flash drive to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (and not the Secretary of State) with supposedly 20,000 names of "likely illegal" voters on California voting rolls — far below their initial claim of more than 190,000. Both LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk and subsequently the California Secretary of State asked for source and methodology information — they were met with crickets.

On Monday, the Trump DOJ announced charges against 28 people, far fewer than the revised 20,000 claimed the week prior. But during the press conference, some shocking admissions were made by Trump DOJ officials: that there may be U.S. citizens mistakenly on their list of 20,000 of suspected "illegal" voters.

Shocking admissions

Key finding

And after the announcement, information came out through reporting by LAMaterial that there were more registered Republicans than Democrats in that batch of 28 — once again knocking down Trump's claims of widespread Democratic voter fraud:

Skeptical reception

Experts and members of the press continue to be skeptical of this latest announcement given similar claims in Nevada by the Trump DOJ fell apart:

"If [the] DOJ could prove many more cases, we would have heard about it," said UCLA law professor Rick Hasen in a blog post Monday.

"They've been on an aggressive hunt nationally for such fraud. It's not surprising they've found little because it is a small problem," said David Becker, a former DOJ attorney who now leads the nonpartisan Center for Innovation and Election Research, noting the 28 prosecutions represent just 0.0001% of active voters in California.

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"All told about 1 in 1.25 million registered voters being accused of illegally registering or voting, making this crime slightly less likely than guessing a six-digit pin code on the first try," writes Anita Chabria in The Los Angeles Times titled: Why Trump's attack on California voting is false — and even a bit funny.

"Practically, this claim is suspect. The Trump administration's assertions of mass noncitizen voting have routinely proven meritless. Legally speaking, this lawsuit is equally baffling," Ben Berwick and Jessica Marsden write in the San Francisco Chronicle. Berwick co-leads the elections and voting rights team, and Marsden leads the civic space and rule of law team at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan anti-authoritarianism advocacy organization.

"The Trump administration's attack on California's ongoing elections is merely one episode in a long and dismal series of efforts to undermine confidence in the integrity of the American democratic system. And it's an attempt to manufacture a rationale for attacks still to come," Robert Greene, former Editorial Board member of The Los Angeles Times writes in CalMatters.

"But more than 23 million people are registered to vote in California. Even if all 28 of the accused are guilty, they constitute roughly one ten-thousandth of one percent of the people on the state's voter rolls. Is it possible they broke the rules? Sure. Is it possible they broke the system? Give me a break," Jack Dolan writes in The Los Angeles Times' Essential California Newsletter.

"If it can prove its allegations, the Trump admin will have revised its initial estimate of voter fraud in California down by a factor of 8,300…Essayli also acknowledged that the federal government has yet to show California evidence of its claims," Raheem Hosseini writes in the San Francisco Chronicle titled: Did the Trump administration just prove that voter fraud in California is a non-factor?

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And according to a new filing by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, 38.9% of a batch of 200 names sampled from the 20,000 Trump's DOJ shared indicated they were born in the United States.

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