First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli
First Assistant” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli is on a right-wing media tour claiming to have evidence of election fraud in California that will lead to prosecutions soon. Essayli is encouraging people to send in tips to help the Department of Justice investigate the supposed election rigging. Essayli's comments have right-wing media outlets in a frenzy pushing unverified claims of fraud.
Essayli is a Trump appointee currently leading the Central District of California federal prosecutors’ office despite not having received Senate confirmation. Once Essayli reached the term limit for his initial post of interim U.S. attorney, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed him a “first assistant” attorney, essentially granting him the leadership role in the Los Angeles office without confirmation. According to the Los Angeles Times, Essayli has “struggled to achieve courtroom victories,” particularly in cases against protestors.
Since California held its primary elections on June 2, the Trump administration and Republican Party have led a surge of claims of voter fraud and election rigging by the Democrats. As CNN noted, there has been no evidence to back up such claims. But Essayli has begun a media tour maintaining that individuals will be prosecuted for voter fraud.
Three days after the primary elections, Essayli was interviewed on CNN's The Story Is, where he claimed, “Absolutely, there is evidence that people are cheating, 100 percent,” adding, “There will be charges. I'm not prepared to announce them yet.”
Essayli cited a story about a single woman who was caught offering money to homeless individuals to register to vote “at false addresses” but admitted “we don't know” if election fraud is widespread or if it would affect the outcome of an election. Essayli uses this prosecution of one woman as his concrete evidence of election fraud in most of his interviews.
Also on June 5, Essayli appeared on Fox News' Fox News @ Night, asserting that “you'll never find” fraud “if you don't look for it.” Fox host Trace Gallagher said that he hasn't heard of evidence of widespread fraud, but “it is hard to believe that something, somewhere is not happening.”
Essayli also did an interview with Salem News Channel's The Scott Jennings Show the same day, repeating the same claims.
In an appearance on The Glenn Beck Program on June 8, Essayli asserted, “We do have multiple ongoing investigations … regarding election fraud,” and complained that the California voter rolls are “dirty” because noncitizens may be included. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare and statistically insignificant.
He also told Beck, “I expect people will be charged, but we need a wide-scale audit of the California voter roll,” and plugged his office's official tip line email, saying, “We are looking for any sort of wide-scale conspiracy, if you will. Right now, I would say our investigations lean more into individual actors.”
On the same day, Essayli did an interview on WABC's Cats & Cosby radio show, claiming California's voter registration process allows noncitizens to vote and suggesting that the voter rolls are full of noneligible voters.
“You've got all these ridiculous things that do not prove that you are an eligible United States citizen who can vote in an election,” he said of the documents California allows people to provide to show their residence.
Again, Essayli claimed, “Will we be charging people with fraud? Yes, we will,” and then pushed for an audit of the voter rolls.
Essayli repeated the claims of fraud and intention to prosecute during an interview on The Charlie Kirk Show, where co-host Blake Neff said “we absolutely need to find” actual fraud but “it doesn't matter if there's no fraud in this case because they've done everything they can to make it look as shady as possible.”
On June 8 alone, Essayli also appeared on One America News Network's Real America, NewsNation's Cuomo, and Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, repeating the same claims. Essayli plugged his tip line on Ingraham, saying if “people have witnessed anything, any specific conduct of fraud,” they should provide evidence, and adding, “I don't think a republic can survive if the people don't have faith in the systems.”
Essayli's push to prosecute has been picked up by other right-wing media outlets. Gateway Pundit called it an “explosive update” and claimed “a suspicious late 'ballot dump' delivered thousands of votes to far-left candidates” in Los Angeles. Salem Media site RedState published an article touting Essayli’s efforts and claiming about election fraud, “The problem is more widespread than the politicians want to admit, yet they are still blocking the SAVE America Act.” The Daily Caller and The Daily Wire have also reported on Essayli's comments.
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters
- What Republicans Really Mean When They Accuse Democrats Of 'Election Cheating' ›
- Trump Urges 'Termination' Of Constitution Over 2020 Election 'Fraud' ›
- Stuck In 2020: Trump Prosecutor Targeting Georgia Election Workers ›
- Trump's Stooge: Tainted Federal Prosecutor Stirs California Election Conspiracies ›
- Election fraud probes in California announced by US Attorney amid rising tensions over slow vote count | FOX 11 Los Angeles ›
- Essayli says 'multiple election fraud investigations underway,' gives no specifics - ABC7 Los Angeles ›
- Trump Attorney Begs for Evidence of Election Fraud in California | The New Republic ›
- Voter fraud investigation in California could yield charges: Bill Essayli ›
- Essayli expects US attorney’s office to file election fraud charges in California | Jefferson City News-Tribune ›
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