Judge Trina Thompson Halts DOJ Election Threats — SkimNews
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- Trina Thompson ordered the Department of Justice to stop demanding that local and state election officials set aside or refuse to process ballots and to stop threatening them with criminal charges; she said the tactic would “wreak havoc” and was likely to disenfranchise lawful voters.
- Department of Justice letters to California’s secretary of state and Los Angeles County Registrar demanded that ballots from 20,000 registered voters whom the administration believed were likely non-citizens be set aside.
- Department of Homeland Security armed officials delivered letters to California county officials and employees threatening criminal charges if they did not sequester those ballots; the officials said compliance would conflict with state and federal election procedures.
- Department of Justice reportedly began a criminal investigation into county election officials and issued federal grand jury subpoenas, extending the administration’s pressure beyond its written demands.
- Washington received a similar Justice Department letter demanding that its secretary of state stop processing ballots over the administration’s allegations of non-citizen voting.
- Trump called the ruling "Why would they reject fixing Election Fraud?", alleged rampant postal-vote and non-citizen voting fraud and offered a $1m reward for reports leading to a conviction; the Heritage Foundation database identified 24 non-citizen voting convictions from 2005 to 2025.
- Trump administration also lost two court challenges: a judge threw out its bid to block Alaska election certification, while a separate ruling denied its attempt to block a key Senate result.
Why it matters: California election officials can follow state and federal procedures without yielding to threats of federal criminal charges, with processing of 20,000 disputed ballots governed by those laws before the November 3 midterms. For the Trump administration, the order blocks a tactic the judge said was likely to disenfranchise lawful voters.
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