The Trump DOJ’s threats against California are a bluff.

Key Points:

• After Spencer Pratt, President Trump’s preferred candidate in the Los Angeles mayoral race, trailed in vote counts due to California’s mail-in ballot system, Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats were cheating, prompting a federal election fraud investigation in California.
• The investigation announced by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli is widely viewed by experts and officials as performative, aimed at sowing doubt in election integrity rather than uncovering actual fraud, as California has no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud.
• California’s vote-by-mail system, which allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted up to seven days later, explains the delayed vote tallying and shifts in candidate standings, a normal process that Trump has repeatedly attacked despite its constitutionality.
• Legal experts warn that Trump’s ongoing baseless claims and federal investigations serve as a testing ground for undermining democratic processes nationwide, with the broader threat to democracy coming from attempts to erode confidence in legitimate elections.
• Additional legal news includes Supreme Court decisions expanding protections for racially discriminatory voting maps, controversies over Trump’s immigration policies, judicial misconduct in Georgia, and reflections on 50 years of death penalty jurisprudence.