DOJ Opens Criminal Probe in California After Judge Rejects Bid to Set Aside 20,000 Ballots

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation in California into alleged noncitizen voting and has issued federal grand jury subpoenas to local election officials, a U.S. official told NBC News on Thursday. Straight Arrow News reported that prosecutors in Los Angeles and at least one other California district began issuing the subpoenas Thursday. It is unclear how many were sent or who received them. The official said a subpoena does not make someone a target and that the department rarely subpoenas people it intends to charge. The subpoenas follow a Wednesday ruling by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a Clinton appointee, denying the administration's emergency request to segregate mail ballots tied to about 20,000 voters it calls likely noncitizens. Carter wrote that the federal government had never before sought, on the eve of an election, to coerce state and local governments to abandon their own election procedures. The estimate had fallen from a 190,832 figure in a July 16 Homeland Security letter to Secretary of State Shirley Weber. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said the Justice Department has taken an adversarial approach and that officials are following the law.

Fox News, the right-leaning outlet, leads with the fight over the 20,000 voters "taking a sharp turn" as ballots arrive. It opens with First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who says the denial disenfranchises citizens and that facilitating noncitizen voting violates the Constitution. It describes how Homeland Security Investigations flagged the voters, and mentions California's dispute of the list only after that. NBC News, on the left, leads with the criminal probe and subpoenas, relying on an anonymous U.S. official and Logan's criticism, and presents the ruling as questioning the accuracy of the administration's identification process. Both note Carter's ruling and that he questioned the evidence. They differ in sourcing and emphasis: Fox features the prosecutor's case, NBC the subpoenas and local officials' response. Reason, an independent outlet, adds a distinct angle, focusing on Carter's scathing language and the shrinking estimate.