{"id":500054,"date":"2026-10-18T10:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500054\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T10:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:16:22","slug":"they-will-all-go-to-jail-trump-threatens-california-officials-amid-push-to-reject-20000-ballots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500054\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They will all go to jail\u2019: Trump threatens California officials amid push to reject 20,000 ballots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Donald Trump threatened California election officials with jail time hours after the Department of Justice (DOJ) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/trump-doj-threatens-california-election-officials-with-criminal-exposure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">warned<\/a> that they could face \u201ccriminal exposure\u201d if they do not disenfranchise thousands of voters the federal government has flagged as potential noncitizens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!\u201d the president wrote in a social media post Friday evening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump\u2019s threat marks the latest escalation in his administration\u2019s effort to directly interfere with the midterms by challenging votes from 20,000 Californians whom it claims, without showing evidence, are possible noncitizens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After giving California and Los Angeles County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/trump-doj-demanded-california-vet-20000-voters-within-48-hours-before-suing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">just 48 hours<\/a> to confirm the citizenship of the 20,000 people, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/cases\/california-doj-voter-roll-interference-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">DOJ filed a civil suit<\/a> against the state and county Thursday seeking a court order barring them from counting ballots from the flagged voters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Noncitizen voting is exceptionally rare in U.S. elections. The administration has also routinely flagged eligible voters as potential noncitizens throughout its search for noncitizens on state voter registration lists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a letter Friday to Los Angeles County\u2019s counsel, the DOJ dramatically escalated its confrontation with California by warning election officials in the state could be criminally liable if they count mail ballots sent to the flagged voters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime,\u2019 acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Already, the Trump administration\u2019s efforts against California have been marred by errors and security lapses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the DOJ first pressed Los Angeles to set aside ballots from flagged voters, it sent the county a list of names on a password-protected thumb drive. However, county officials were unable to access the list on the thumb drive because of security concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, county officials <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/the-doj-sued-los-angeles-to-stop-20000-people-from-voting-one-problem-some-arent-registered-there\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">confirmed to Democracy Docket<\/a> that when they finally securely accessed the list, it included voters from across the state, not just Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump threatened California election officials with jail time hours after the Department of Justice (DOJ) warned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-500054","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\/500054","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=500054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}