{"id":372636,"date":"2026-06-24T06:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/372636\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T06:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:09:14","slug":"do-me-a-favor-trump-says-he-directed-doj-to-investigate-california-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/372636\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Do me a favor’: Trump says he directed DOJ to investigate California elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump said<\/a> he directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to probe California elections as early results showed his preferred candidate trailing in the state\u2019s recent gubernatorial primary.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s admission, which Trump made at a political rally in Macungie, Pennsylvania, is the clearest evidence yet of Trump\u2019s weaponization of the department to interfere in elections.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the rally, Trump said he told Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in central California, to \u201ctake a look\u201d into the state\u2019s election because he feared that Steve Hilton<\/a>, his endorsed candidate, was at risk of not advancing to the general election in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called up the very powerful and very good U.S. attorney in California, and I said, \u2018Do me a favor. Take a look, they are trying to steal that election, too,\u2019\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

On June 5, Essayli announced<\/a> the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Los Angeles was probing California\u2019s elections. Around that same time, Trump and his allies were using California\u2019s protracted ballot count<\/a> to push baseless election fraud claims<\/a> and conspiracy theories about the state\u2019s vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Trump hailed Essayli\u2019s probes on social media, it wasn\u2019t previously known that he personally ordered the investigations.<\/p>\n

At the rally, Trump falsely asserted that Essayli\u2019s investigations were the only reason Hilton, a conservative author and former Fox News host, advanced in the gubernatorial primary.<\/p>\n

Essayli\u2019s office did not immediately respond to Democracy Docket\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next week, he was definitely going to lose, but the U.S. attorney called, \u2018We want to check your votes,\u2019\u201d Trump said. \u201cAbout an hour after the call, \u2018Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Hilton has won.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHad I not made that call, Steve Hilton would right now be watching the election from home,\u201d the president added.<\/p>\n

In reality, Hilton finished second in the state\u2019s jungle primary system \u2014 in which the top two candidates of any party advance to the general election \u2014 because more votes were counted and early electoral returns do not determine final results.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hilton will now face former Biden administration official Xavier Becerra in November.<\/p>\n

Election experts told Democracy Docket<\/a> that Trump and the GOP\u2019s lies about California\u2019s recent primary could serve as a blueprint for undermining the crucial midterms later this year. Trump openly boasting about using the DOJ to sway an election will likely heighten those concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While extolling his intervention in California, Trump also called for the passage of the SAVE America Act. If enacted, the massive Republican voter suppression bill would disenfranchise millions of American citizens. Trump implied that Hilton would win in California, a Democratic stronghold, if the bill became law.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s totally rigged. It\u2019s a disgrace. We gotta pass the SAVE America Act, okay? Gotta pass it,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

Hilton has supported passing a state-level version of the SAVE America Act in California.<\/p>\n

In addition to California\u2019s gubernatorial primary, Trump and other top GOP officials pushed election lies about the Los Angeles mayoral primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They claimed that Republican Spencer Pratt, a former reality television star, lost because of fraud. In reality, Los Angeles is one of the most heavily Democratic cities in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump said he directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to probe California elections as early results…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-372636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}