Essayli Bill Usag

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POW ESSAYLI NOT EVEN ACTING USAG

SEE ILLEGAL GOP STEAL ELECTION

VOTER FRAUD BS LA // WH INFLUENCER

CHAPMAN U

JOK

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an 10 26

President Donald Trump's first assistant U.S. attorney keeps getting caught in lies, according to one keen observer.

National security expert Marcy Wheeler pointed to a recent tweet from Bill Essayli listing details about the case against California and Los Angeles County over a conspiracy theory about mail ballots. According to the federal government, 20,000 of the people who got ballots were "likely noncitizens."

The administration has been caught in this fight before. In Nevada, the administration used this same system and claimed that as many as 15,903 noncitizens might be on the state’s voter rolls. The state demanded evidence, and Homeland Security whittled the list down to 185 names, claiming it had "manually" verified they were noncitizens.

Nevada officials then checked the 185 names against state records and concluded every one was a U.S. citizen.

In a letter to DHS, Deputy Attorney General Greg Ott wrote: “As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens,” adding that the federal government had “provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise.”

Now California must use the same system and face the same allegations. So, the parties asked the judge to block the federal government's demand.

The Justice Department argued that California must segregate those ballots until their citizenship status can be verified, and Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the state of refusing to comply with federal law.

Essayli falsely claimed on X, "Make no mistake: California has no interest in protecting the integrity of its elections. We presented the evidence. Their answers: "It's not widespread fraud." "It's too late we already mailed the ballots." "It's already illegal to vote illegally." "We can't trust your evidence." A law that isn't enforced is meaningless. Today we are asking a court to require California to follow the law and not count ballots cast by noncitizens," he claimed.

Wheeler said that in this case, Essayli was "outright lying here."

She cited, "The same untested garbage that has been shown to be fraudulent in other states. He is confessing to a conspiracy to deprive naturalized citizens, like Harmeet Dhillon, of their right to vote," Wheeler bashed.

Indeed, Essayli's claims still have not been independently verified and resemble a system that failed in Nevada.

His problem is that the lawsuit itself describes the people as “likely noncitizens,” not confirmed noncitizens. California officials say the federal government has not explained the basis for the suspicion or provided enough identifying information to verify the list.

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an 8 26

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli promised President Donald Trump that California was “a fraudster’s paradise,” and pledged would announce charges within weeks of his appointment. That was two months ago.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday that Essayli talked a big game but has failed to deliver.

After the California primary election, Trump and Republicans sounded the alarm that there had to be fraud going on because it was taking too long to count the ballots in Los Angeles County.

"They are trying to steal the governor of California primary, and the mayor of Los Angeles, primary, away from two great Republican candidates. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of mail in ballots," Trump ranted in all-caps on Truth Social.

Essayli posted his own promise to Trump on X, saying, "Without commenting on any specific investigation, my office has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with @FBILosAngeles . We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent."

Only a few days later, he was speaking to Glenn Beck, promising to charge individual actors “in the next … one to two months.”

“I hate to put timelines on things,” Essayli said. “We need some of these results to be certified so we can prove some of the allegations. But we will be charging some people.”

He also called on the public to send tips proving voter fraud was "widespread" in California.

“We are looking for any widespread conspiracy, if you will. Right now, I would say our investigations lean more into individual actors,” he explained. “Theoretically, I’d have to charge thousands of people to prove that it changed the outcome of the election. … But we are looking. We are looking.”

When he spoke to Chris Cuomo on News Nation, Essayli said, “there is evidence of voter fraud … and when we’re ready to bring those cases, you’ll see the evidence. You’ll see the case.”

But, that was at the beginning of the summer. On June 14, Essayli promised KCRA news, “So some of them are more developed and they’re ready to charge.”

After nothing for months, it appears the prosecutor is beginning to change the narrative, the report explained. The Chronicle cited Essayli, saying that to get access to the voter rolls, the Justice Department must sue the state of California and it might take a while.

A constitutional law professor explained how situations like this go beyond a debate about whether widespread voter fraud exists.

“At this point, unfortunately, I don’t know why anybody would believe the Department of Justice,” said Justin Levitt, who teaches at the Loyola Law School. “And that is not a thing that I relish saying as somebody who used to work there … It’s also not something that I would have said in the administration of any individual other than President Trump.”

When The Chronicle called the office to ask what the hold-up was, they were told they'd have an update in two weeks.

“It turns out that voter fraud does occasionally happen, but it is incredibly rare, like single-digits-of-balance rare,” Levitt said. “The elections in California, the elections in Southern California, the elections in other parts of California are very clean. And election officials work incredibly hard to make sure that they’re very clean. It does great disservice to the election officials when people run their mouths.”

He explained that Essayli is "a piece" of the larger whole of the Justice Department and currently the DOJ doesn't enjoy much credibility in court.

“I’m not sure this U.S. attorney has established himself as a trusted local partner with the sort of vague allegations of widespread wrongdoing that he hasn’t been able to back up. To be clear, he hasn’t been able to back it up because I don’t personally believe that these things he was saying are true," Levitt said.

Trump and Republican allies spent over a week spreading claims that fraud was afoot in California and calling for action. Levitt explained that these kinds of conspiracy theories from officials spread further mistrust and sow doubt.

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MMA 6 26

Right-wing media’s response to results of LA mayoral primary race is a preview of their midterm playbook

Right-wing media have been using footage from an emerging group of right-wing influencers to allege fraud during CA primary elections

Written by Kayla Gogarty

Research contributions from Hanne MacDonald, Isabella Sherk, Gideon Taaffe & Jack Winstanley

Published 06/18/26

Following Nithya Raman's late surge over Spencer Pratt in the primary results for Los Angeles mayor, right-wing media and the Trump administration leveraged often misleading videos from an emerging group of right-wing influencers to undermine the results.

This tactic fuels election misinformation narratives among the right-wing media and serves to provide so-called “proof” of their conspiracy theories to dispute election results, even though their “proof” is often exaggerated or misleading and voter fraud is extremely rare.

An emerging group of right-wing influencers are mirroring James O'Keefe's tactics

As MAGA-aligned influencers try to make a name for themselves in a crowded field, there is an emerging group of right-wing influencers who describe themselves as “independent journalists” and post on-the-ground, documentary-style videos that spread right-wing narratives on social media. These influencers are using James O’Keefe’s template for undercover sting-style and often misleading videos meant to expose and embarrass liberal organizations and causes.

Among these influencers are Nick Shirley, who gained prominence in recent months following his so-called investigation into fraud in Minneapolis day care centers; Muckraker's Anthony Rubin (who describes himself as a “guerrilla journalist”); and several influencers affiliated with Turning Point USA's Frontlines, including Cam Higby, Savanah Hernandez, and Jonathan Choe. O'Keefe also entered the fold in March, launching Citizen Justice League — a self-described “network of citizen journalists” — and descending into California along with Choe and other Frontlines influencers.

• ### In March, right-wing influencers descended on Skid Row, claiming to uncover voter registration fraud

In March, several right-wing influencers including, Rubin, Cam Higby,, Savanah Hernandez descended on Skid Row — a 50-block neighborhood in Los Angeles that is officially called Central City East. These self-described “independent journalists” published content alleging a voter registration fraud scheme on Skid Row that involves canvassers registering people to vote and sign ballot initiatives in exchange for cash, cigarettes, and marijuana. Most of the videos appear to be in collaboration with O'Keefe's Citizen Justice League.

Citation

Screenshots via YouTube and Instagram / Media Matters

O'Keefe and others from O'Keefe Media Group “went undercover on Skid Row, posing as homeless individuals,” and they claimed that they captured “28 Instances Of Cash Changing Hands For Ballot Signatures & Voter Registration Forms” on hidden cameras, including footage of a petitioner, Brenda Brown. In the video, O'Keefe alleged that Brown “hands cash money to the homeless person, not only for signing the California ballot initiative, but also as payment for them to register to vote.”

Video

Citation

From a March 17, 2026, YouTube video from O’Keefe Media Group and Citizen Justice League

On March 24, O'Keefe published a second video, alleging that homeless individuals were being paid “to forge the signatures and addresses of current registered voters on ballot measure petitions.”

Following the publication of the Skid Row videos, right-wing media outlets and personalities — including Sinclair’s The National News Desk and, the New York Post,, and — spread the videos and their claims of bribes. O’Keefe, in particular, was interviewed on several programs — including, The Charlie Kirk Show, The Alex Jones Show, and Steve Bannon's *War Room* — where he made unfounded claims that this alleged fraud has occurred potentially of times.

• ### After the California primaries, right-wing media leveraged content from right-wing influencers and suggested fraud in Nithya Raman late surge in votes

When the votes started to be counted in the jungle primary race, current mayor Karen Bass quickly qualified for the runoff; for the second spot, Spencer Pratt had an early lead, but as Nithya Raman surged ahead of him in the following days, right-wing media's election denial machine went into action, asserting that the election was rigged without pointing to any specific instances of voting fraud.

As Cam Higby noted during a discussion of the California primaries, “To be clear, we don't know for sure that the crimes that we caught people committing in our investigation are directly linked to the mayoral primary or the gubernatorial primary. We're just pointing out, ‘Hey, seems a little bit weird that they're doing a ballot scam just a couple months before the election.’”

Regardless, right-wing media are still using O'Keefe's and other right-wing influencers’ claims about unhoused people registering to vote at homeless shelters on Skid Row to make vague assertions about the Los Angeles primary. On The Benny Show, California Post's Joel Pollak said, “I think the evidence is starting to point us toward a vote harvesting operation that probably targeted Skid Row and other areas where there were many homeless people who could be registered to vote and could be encouraged either to sign their ballots in favor of Nithya Raman or to give them to people who would collect the ballots for them.”

On his show, The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles questioned Raman's second-place win, claiming, “What that implies is that Democrat activists went around and harvested ballots and perhaps forged ballots or bought ballots to beef up Nithya Raman, who nobody likes, to make sure that Spencer Pratt was not in the runoff.” Minutes later, Knowles praised O'Keefe: “Thankfully, we have James O'Keefe who has come out, done an undercover investigation to actually film these ballot harvesters paying people to register.”

On War Room, Election Integrity Network’s Cleta Mitchell — whom The Guardian called “a rising star of Republican election denialism” in 2024 — similarly invoked O'Keefe during a discussion of the California primaries with Bannon. Mitchell alleged that O'Keefe has recently published videos “showing the political hacks going to the homeless, who are the predominant constituency I suppose in LA now, and offering them drugs and money for ballots. … They knew as of election night how many votes the third-place finisher needed and they just gone out and gotten those votes.”

• ### The Trump administration picked up right-wing influencers’ videos to cast doubt on the California primaries

The Skid Row videos came amid Trump and his right-wing media allies’ push for the passage of the SAVE America Act, which aims to rewrite election laws nationwide and would, if passed, create new barriers for people attempting to register to vote. On March 24, the same day O'Keefe released his second Skid Row video, Trump posted to Truth Social a screenshot of and link to O’Keefe’s social media post promoting the video, adding, “Terrible!”

In his March 17 video, O’Keefe specifically claimed, “The Department of Justice has been sent these tapes of election fraud cash exchange for voter registration happening in broad daylight, and we have informed the Department of Justice there are more tapes coming.”

Two months later, the DOJ announced that petitioner Brenda Brown, who had been featured in O'Keefe's video, was “charged with one felony count of paying another person to register to vote, a federal charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.” Following the charges, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli credited O'Keefe's undercover video for leading to the charges: “I think that was widely reported and it was all over the press and as a result of that, initiated and opened up a criminal investigation with the FBI.” Essayli also said that Brown is “simply the first person that we are announcing charges for in this investigation resulting from some undercover videos that took place at Skid Row.”

O'Keefe and other right-wing influencers have boasted about their role in these investigations, and after the California primaries, Essayli went on a right-wing media tour, claiming to have evidence of election fraud in California that will lead to prosecutions and encouraging people to send in tips to help the DOJ investigate the supposed election rigging.

• ### This California playbook is a preview of what the right-wing media and the Trump administration will do to undermine the midterm elections results

As the 2026 midterms approach, right-wing media and the Trump administration appear to have ramped up their efforts to undermine the midterm elections – often invoking existing and repeatedly debunked conspiracy theoriesabout widespread election fraud in the U.S. and typically relying on one-off incidents and hypotheticals that are often exaggerated or misleading.

Content from right-wing influencers serves to provide the so-called “proof” of election conspiracy theories and fuels election misinformation narratives throughout right-wing media. It also gives the administration an excuse to argue for policies or actions that would restrict voter access.

While the March content focuses on Skid Row, it dovetails with other videos from these creators that misleadingly claim to show widespread voter fraud in other places, as well as previous content with now-debunked accusations about homelessness services in California.

In January, Benny Johnson was on the ground in California, including on Skid Row, claiming that he would help American taxpayers “see first-hand how criminal California fraud is robbing our nation blind.” In February, Nick Shirley published alleging voter fraud in California. According to Shirley, he went “to locations from California’s public voter rolls from the Secretary of State, and not a single location could verify the voter rolls.”

All of this content claiming fraud in California has been fodder for vague claims of widespread election fraud for those unhappy with the results of the California primaries — and it is all a preview of how this playbook can be used to undermine the upcoming midterm elections.

//

1. ### Nick Shirley rebooted James O’Keefe’s debunked voter fraud myths for a new audience

02/18/26 4:25 PM EST

2. ### The Flaws In The O'Keefe “Voter Fraud” Scheme

01/11/12 4:54 PM EST

3. ### The right enters a post-proof era of election denial

06/10/26

===

Bill Essayli - Wikipedia 6 26

TALK It needs to be updated to relieve that his appointment was deemed illegal by a federal judge. 104.243.181.224 (talk) 01:50, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

Bilal Ali "Bill" Essayli (born November 24, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician who currently serves as the first assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California. He previously served as the interim United States attorney for the Central District of California from April to July 2025.^[2][3][4][5] A federal judge ruled that he had illegally served as the acting US Attorney. Essayli was disqualified from holding the position because he stayed on beyond the initial interim period without having received official congressional approval,^[6][7][8] and was immediately reassigned to the First Assistant United States Attorney role.^[9][10]

Essayli served as a member of the California State Assembly from 2022 until 2025. A Republican, he was the first Muslim elected to the state assembly,^[11] where he represented the 63rd district, which includes Canyon Lake, Corona, Eastvale, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Norco, Riverside, Temescal Valley, and Woodcrest.^[12]

Early life and education

Essayli's parents are immigrants from Lebanon who fled to the United States to escape the Lebanese Civil War.^[11] He graduated from the public Centennial High School in Corona, California.^[13]

Essayli received a bachelor's degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and a Juris Doctor degree from Chapman University.^[14]

Early career

Essayli served as an intern in the White House Counsel's Office in 2008. He then worked in private practice, where he focused on employment law. Then he joined the Riverside County District Attorney's office as a prosecutor. He then became an Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California. Among the cases he worked on was the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino.^[15]

California State Assembly

In 2018, Essayli ran for the California State Assembly against incumbent Democrat Sabrina Cervantes. He lost the election, but made a strong showing, which raised his local profile.

In 2022, Essayli ran for the state Assembly in the newly created 63rd Assembly District. He defeated Eastvale Mayor Clint Lorimore in the primary and businesswoman Fauzia Rizvi in the general election.

Acting and First Assistant United States Attorney

In April 2025, United States Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Essayli as interim United States Attorney for the Central District of California.^[3][4] The appointment was made under federal law allowing the Attorney General to fill vacancies without Senate confirmation for up to 120 days.^[16] The district, headquartered in Los Angeles, encompasses seven counties and nearly 20 million residents, making it the largest federal judicial district.^[17]

His appointment prompted pushback from Democratic officials and progressive organizations, culminating in the launch of Stop Essayli, a grassroots effort opposing his confirmation on grounds of alleged political retaliation and civil rights concerns.^{[18][19][20][21}]

The Los Angeles Times reported that Essayli struggled to secure convictions at grand juries for charges he brought against protestors during the June 2025 Los Angeles protests. By July 23, federal prosecutors brought 38 felony cases against protestors but secured only seven indictments, with many being dismissed or reduced to misdemeanor charges. Three federal law enforcement officers reported to the Times that they overheard a speakerphone conversation in the vicinity of the grand jury room in which Essayli screamed at a prosecutor to ignore the Department of Justice's Justice Manual and instead to secure indictments as directed by Pam Bondi. The report said Essayli's low number of indictments raised concerns among legal experts over the strength of the cases he was filing.^[22]

On October 28, 2025, in a 64-page order, Senior Judge John Michael Seabright of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii ruled that Essayli's authority as an interim appointee had expired as of July 29, 2025.^[7] Seabright wrote that "Essayli unlawfully assumed the role of Acting United States Attorney for the Central District of California", stating that "He is disqualified from serving in that role".^[23][24][25] The judge determined that Essayli had been illegally serving in the acting role since July 2025, due to the lack of an official Senate confirmation, and clarified that Essayli may instead hold the title of "First Assistant United States Attorney" for the Central District of California.^[6][7][8]

On January 24, 2026, in response to the killing of Alex Pretti, Essayli posted on Twitter: "If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don't do it!"^[26] The gun-rights organizations National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America both criticized the comments. The National Rifle Association called these comments "dangerous and wrong" and called for a full investigation.^[27] Gun Owners of America responded by stating: "We condemn the untoward comments of U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. Federal agents are not 'highly likely' to be 'legally justified' in 'shooting' concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm. The Second Amendment protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon."^[28]

. During his time at Chapman, Essayli was selected from a national pool as only one of three law students to spend their summer interning at The White House Counsel's Office, where he worked with former President George W. Bush’s team of White House attorneys.

Before becoming a prosecutor, Mr. Essayli was an associate attorney at the law firm of Paul Hastings LLP, focusing on employment law.

BEAT UP WORKERS

https://www.paulhastings.com/practice-areas/employment-law

Client Successes

• Represented American Airlines in high-stakes labor negotiations in bankruptcy as the company sought to reduce labor costs by more than US$1B annually.

• Won a critical victory for GlaxoSmithKline and the pharmaceutical industry in a legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corporation.

• Defeated the first “suitable seats” class action to proceed to trial on behalf of Kmart.

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[### Reform California said that it had collected more than 1 ...

Facebook · Independent Voter

90+ reactions · 5 months ago](https://www.facebook.com/IVN/posts/reform-california-said-that-it-had-collected-more-than-1-million-signatures-in-9/1302151451956538/)

Result of submitting this bill – Republican Bill Essayli got booted off the Assembly Elections Committee. Not discouraged, DeMaio and ...Read more

BIG LIE BECK BASS ACKW ON CHARGES

[### F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli ...

X · USAttyEssayli

70.6K+ followers](https://x.com/USAttyEssayli?lang=en)

Mahender Makhijani, 44, a lawful permanent resident from India living in Corona del Mar, was arrested this morning on a federal criminal complaint charging ...Read more

FEDSOC

2025

Criminal Justice Reform: State and Federal Perspectives

Los Angeles Lawyers Chapter

Jones Day

555 South Flower Street

Los Angeles, CA 90071

Speakers:

Bill Essayli •Nathan Hochman •Joseph McNally

Sponsors:

Los Angeles Lawyer Chapter

2024 500K

PAID

bilal-essayli-b8001a49

SCRAPE

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Jennifer Waier

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Chief Assistant United States Attorney & Chief, Criminal Division - Central District of California](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-waier-3114564/)

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District Attorney of Los Angeles County](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-hochman-3375a8b4/)

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U.S. Attorney, Northern District of California](https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigmissakian/)

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Assistant United States Attorney at United States Attorney's Office (personal account)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-norell-b0b04a70/)

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Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harmeet-k-dhillon-543773/)

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Global Security Director @ Waterton Global Resource Management | IJW Whiskey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/akil-davis-263000266/)

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Federal Prosecutor and Chief, National Security Division](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-yanniello-1914a317/)

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