‘Do me a favor’: Trump says he directed DOJ to investigate California elections

President Donald Trump said he directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to probe California elections as early results showed his preferred candidate trailing in the state’s recent gubernatorial primary.

Tuesday’s admission, which Trump made at a political rally in Macungie, Pennsylvania, is the clearest evidence yet of Trump’s weaponization of the department to interfere in elections.

Speaking at the rally, Trump said he told Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in central California, to “take a look” into the state’s election because he feared that Steve Hilton, his endorsed candidate, was at risk of not advancing to the general election in November.

“I called up the very powerful and very good U.S. attorney in California, and I said, ‘Do me a favor. Take a look, they are trying to steal that election, too,’” Trump said.

On June 5, Essayli announced the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles was probing California’s elections. Around that same time, Trump and his allies were using California’s protracted ballot count to push baseless election fraud claims and conspiracy theories about the state’s vote. 

While Trump hailed Essayli’s probes on social media, it wasn’t previously known that he personally ordered the investigations.

At the rally, Trump falsely asserted that Essayli’s investigations were the only reason Hilton, a conservative author and former Fox News host, advanced in the gubernatorial primary.

Essayli’s office did not immediately respond to Democracy Docket’s request for comment.

“Over the next week, he was definitely going to lose, but the U.S. attorney called, ‘We want to check your votes,’” Trump said. “About an hour after the call, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Hilton has won.’” 

“Had I not made that call, Steve Hilton would right now be watching the election from home,” the president added.

In reality, Hilton finished second in the state’s jungle primary system — in which the top two candidates of any party advance to the general election — because more votes were counted and early electoral returns do not determine final results. 

Hilton will now face former Biden administration official Xavier Becerra in November.

Election experts told Democracy Docket that Trump and the GOP’s lies about California’s recent primary could serve as a blueprint for undermining the crucial midterms later this year. Trump openly boasting about using the DOJ to sway an election will likely heighten those concerns. 

While extolling his intervention in California, Trump also called for the passage of the SAVE America Act. If enacted, the massive Republican voter suppression bill would disenfranchise millions of American citizens. Trump implied that Hilton would win in California, a Democratic stronghold, if the bill became law.

“California’s totally rigged. It’s a disgrace. We gotta pass the SAVE America Act, okay? Gotta pass it,” the president said.

Hilton has supported passing a state-level version of the SAVE America Act in California.

In addition to California’s gubernatorial primary, Trump and other top GOP officials pushed election lies about the Los Angeles mayoral primary. 

They claimed that Republican Spencer Pratt, a former reality television star, lost because of fraud. In reality, Los Angeles is one of the most heavily Democratic cities in the U.S.