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Trump ally and rising California GOP star Essayli named top federal prosecutor in L.A.

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Trump ally and rising California GOP star Essayli named top federal prosecutor in L.A.

Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi has appointed Riverside County Assemblymember Bill Essayli — considered a rising and controversial Republican voice in California — as U.S. attorney for Los Angeles and surrounding areas, according to an email sent to the office’s staff and reviewed by The Times on Tuesday.

“Bill is excited to get started and will be sworn in tomorrow,” acting U.S. Atty. Joseph McNally wrote in the email. He noted that Essayli had previously served as a prosecutor in the same office and called his return a “homecoming.”

Sources familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly said that Essayli’s appointment is as interim U.S. attorney, and that he will still need to be nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate in order to fill the position on a permanent basis.

In a press release Tuesday night, Essayli’s chief of staff, Shawn Lewis, said Essayli had vacated his seat in the California State Assembly to accept the appointment.

“I intend to implement the President’s mission to restore trust in our justice system and pursue those who dare to cause harm to the United States and the People of our nation,” Essayli said.

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Essayli, who was elected to represent part of Riverside County in 2022, has made his name in politics in part by attacking what he calls the “woke” policies of California’s liberal majority in Sacramento. He will helm the Central District of California, the most populous U.S. attorney’s district in the country, covering some 20 million people across seven counties.

Essayli, 39, has been a strong supporter of Trump over the years. Last May, after Trump was convicted of felony crimes tied to a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election, Essayli posted on Facebook that he looked forward to electing Trump as president “to restore the rule of law and our constitutional principles.”

He has criticized COVID-19 restrictions, critical race theory and California policies aimed at protecting LGBTQ+ students. He has pushed especially hard for “parental rights” measures that would mandate parents be informed whenever a child identifies as transgender or asks to change their name or pronouns at school.

The same issue has been a focus of the Trump administration, which last week announced it was investigating the California Department of Education for allegedly withholding such information from parents.

U.S. attorneys are political appointees, and turnover in such posts is common in new administrations. However, Essayli’s selection comes amid robust efforts by Trump to install loyalists at the highest levels of government, including in law enforcement. It also follows allegations that the Trump administration is hiring and firing Justice Department attorneys based purely on politics and perceived loyalty to Trump and his allies.

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Last week, the White House terminated Adam Schleifer, a federal prosecutor in L.A. who had been leading an investigation into a pro-Trump business executive.

McNally had been serving as acting U.S. attorney since Martin E. Estrada, a Biden appointee, resigned in January.

In his email Tuesday, McNally praised Essayli as a strong pick and his selection by Bondi as a vote of confidence in the staff of the Central District office, which he said is doing “incredible work.”

“Those of us who have worked with Bill can attest to this commitment to public service and making the people of this district safe,” he wrote. “It is a testament to the Office that the Attorney General has appointed one of our alums to this role.”

During Trump’s first term, then-Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions appointed Nicola Hanna as the interim U.S. attorney in L.A. The following month, Trump nominated Hanna to the office and he was later confirmed by the Senate. Essayli could follow a similar path as Hanna, though Trump’s intentions for him were not immediately clear.

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The White House did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Essayli also declined to comment when asked earlier Tuesday whether he was being appointed to the position.

Bill Essayli (R-Corona) represents California Assembly District 63.

(California State Assembly)

Essayli is part of a cohort of Riverside County conservatives with ties to the White House, several of whom met with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the president’s sons, just days before the election. The group included Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is now running for governor, and evangelical Pastor Tim Thompson, leader of the 412 Church in Murrieta.

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Essayli has worked in the past, including on challenges to state COVID-19 restrictions, with Harmeet Dhillon, another conservative lawyer from the state whom Trump nominated to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Assemblymember Bill Essayli speaks

Assemblymember Bill Essayli speaks about transgender athletes competing in girls high school sports at a Riverside Unified School District meeting in 2024.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Essayli is the son of Lebanese immigrants and the first person in his family to have graduated from college, according to his Assembly biography. He is Muslim, and in the past has said, “My religion drives my moral compass, but it’s not everything that I am.”

A graduate of Chapman University School of Law, Essayli served as a local prosecutor in the Riverside County district attorney’s office, then as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District, where he handled cases dealing with “violent and organized crime, identity theft, bank fraud, securities fraud, white-collar fraud, obstruction of justice, and a multitude of other matters,” according to his biography.

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He was also part of the team of prosecutors that handled the San Bernardino terrorist attack and mass shooting in 2015, McNally noted in his email.

Essayli first ran for office in 2018 with a focus on California’s gas tax, and lost. In 2022, he ran again and won with a focus on school issues — blasting “woke warriors on the left” for miseducating local children, including on the “sins of our past.”

After winning, Essayli became a contentious colleague in Sacramento.

Assemblymember Bill Essayli

Assemblymember Bill Essayli (R-Corona) speaks during a news conference in Sacramento in 2023.

(Rahul Lal / CalMatters)

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He has repeatedly been removed from committees by Democratic leaders, who have criticized him both for not showing up for subcommittee hearings and for directing personal attacks at his fellow Assembly members, including on social media.

Essayli has received attention in Republican circles beyond California for a bill he introduced that would have mandated schools inform parents of children who identify as transgender or express an interest in changing their pronouns or otherwise socially transitioning in school.

The assemblymember cast the measure as a “parental rights” bill, but LGBTQ+ advocates sharply criticized it as an “outing” measure that would endanger children in unaccepting homes. The bill never gained traction in Sacramento, but some school boards introduced similar measures at the local level. Democrats in Sacramento responded by pushing through a law barring such policies statewide.

Trump campaigned heavily against transgender rights during the election and has since introduced several executive orders attempting to scale back those rights, including in schools, sports and healthcare settings. He, like Essayli, has also claimed that such policies are “common sense.”

Essayli has accused liberal educators and lawmakers in California of running a “brainwashing operation” in schools where they tell kindergarten students that they can “pick one of 20 genders” and then “brainwash” children into thinking that their parents will kick them out of their homes if they tell them what is going on.

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John Cox and Bill Essayli with a sign that says, "Stop the gas tax"

Gubernatorial candidate John Cox, left, and Assembly candidate Bill Essayli load boxes of signatures for a gas tax repeal initiative on April 20, 2018. Essayli lost in his 2018 bid for office.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Essayli said his “fear is that they’re going to start offering medical services at schools,” where state educators and other outside medical care providers such as Planned Parenthood would start providing students as young as 12 with hormone therapy and other medical treatments at school without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

“That’s coming down the line here,” Essayli claimed, without providing evidence.

Trump has made similar false claims about children receiving serious medical interventions to change their genders while at school and unbeknownst to their parents.

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On Tuesday, California lawmakers held a hearing for an Essayli bill that would ban transgender athletes from female sports. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh testified in support of the bill, which was ultimately blocked in committee.

Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.

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Trump stirs GOP primary drama with visit to Massie’s Kentucky home turf

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Trump stirs GOP primary drama with visit to Massie’s Kentucky home turf

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President Donald Trump is taking his feud with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to the libertarian lawmaker’s home turf on Wednesday.

Trump is expected to hold an event in Hebron, Kentucky, on Wednesday, the Republican Party of Kentucky announced on social media Monday. It’s located in the northern part of the state’s 4th Congressional District, which Massie represents.

Massie’s primary rival, Ed Gallrein, will attend the Hebron event, his campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, while deferring all other questions on the matter to the White House.

Massie himself will miss the event due to a previously scheduled official engagement, his spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

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KHANNA AND MASSIE THREATEN TO FORCE A VOTE ON IRAN AS PROSPECT OF US ATTACK LOOMS

President Donald Trump will be visiting Rep. Thomas Massie’s congressional district on Wednesday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

When asked about the visit, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told Fox News Digital, “President Trump will visit the great states of Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday to tout his economic victories and detail his Administration’s aggressive, ongoing efforts to lower prices and make America more affordable.”

The president has thrown his considerable influence behind Gallrein to unseat Massie after the GOP lawmaker publicly defied Trump on multiple occasions.

MASSIE, KHANNA TO VISIT DOJ TO REVIEW UNREDACTED EPSTEIN FILES

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Massie most recently was one of two House Republicans to vote to stop Trump’s joint operation in Iran with Israel, though the legislation was successfully blocked by the majority of GOP lawmakers and a handful of Democrats.

Ed Gallrein, left, seen with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House. (Ed Gallrein congressional campaign)

He was also one of two Republicans to vote against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year.

Trump in turn has hurled a slew of personal attacks against Massie, including calling him “weak and pathetic” in a statement endorsing Gallrein in October.

“He only votes against the Republican Party, making life very easy for the Radical Left. Unlike ‘lightweight’ Massie, a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,” Trump posted on Truth Social at the time, one of numerous criticisms targeting the Kentucky Republican through the years.

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He called Massie the “worst Republican congressman” in July amid Massie’s bipartisan push to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But Massie has so far appeared to defy political gravity despite making political enemies out of both Trump and House GOP leaders.

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He handily defeated multiple primary challengers in 2024 and 2022, despite public feuds with Trump, and has served his district since 2012.

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Gallrein is a retired Navy SEAL and farmer who launched his campaign days after Trump made his endorsement. Their primary election day is May 19.

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California Democrats launch pricey polling effort to winnow crowded gubernatorial field

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California Democrats launch pricey polling effort to winnow crowded gubernatorial field

As anxiety mounts among California Democrats about the potential of a Republican being elected governor, the state party will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on polling to assess the viability of the sprawling field of candidates hoping to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to plans released Tuesday.

The move comes after nearly every Democratic candidate refused party leaders’ call last week to withdraw from the race to avoid splitting the vote in the June primary — an outcome that could lead to a Republican being elected to statewide office for the first time in two decades.

“Candidates have filed, and now they’ve got the opportunity to showcase their viability, their path to win. I want to simply ensure that everybody has information to fully understand the current state of the race,” said Rusty Hicks, the leader of the California Democratic Party.

As campaign season ramps up, the series of six polls will allow “candidates, supporters, the media, voters, anyone and everyone to have a clear understanding of what is or is not happening in this particular race,” he said.

The filing deadline to appear on the June 2 ballot was Friday. Three days earlier, Hicks released an open letter urging candidates who did not have a path to victory to withdraw from the race. Of the nine prominent Democrats who had announced runs for governor, only one heeded his call: former state Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon.

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That means the eight other candidates’ names will appear on the ballot, regardless of whether they decide to later drop out. And that creates the possibility of a Republican winning the race because of how California elections are decided.

The state has a voter-approved top-two primary system, under which the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June primary advance to the November general election, regardless of party.

Two prominent Republicans will appear on the ballot: former conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Even though Democratic voters outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1, and the state’s electorate last elevated Republicans to statewide office in 2006, it is mathematically possible for Democrats to splinter the vote, allowing the two GOP candidates to advance.

Under such a scenario, not only would Republicans be guaranteed the leadership of the nation’s most-populous state, but Democratic voter turnout also would probably be depressed in November, potentially affecting down-ballot races such as those that could determine control of Congress.

Hicks’ call last week prompted concerns among candidates of color, including former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, that the effort was aimed at every nonwhite candidate in the race.

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The state party chairman responded that his letter was not aimed at any specific candidate.

“It’s not something I lose sleep over,” Hicks said when asked about the racial claims. But he added that the voter surveys will be conducted by Los Angeles-based Evitarus, the state’s only Black- and Latino-led full-service polling firm, and will oversample historically underrepresented communities: Latino, Black and Asian American voters.

Hicks said the polling will cost “multiple six figures” but did not specify the exact amount.

The first poll will be released on March 24, and then five additional surveys will come out every seven to 10 days until voters start receiving mail ballots in early May.

“We’re putting this forward to ensure everyone is armed with the information they need to clearly have an eyes-wide-open assessment of where the state of the race currently is between now and when ballots land in the mailboxes of voters,” Hicks said.

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Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’

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Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’

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President Donald Trump outlined five key items he believes will tip the upcoming midterm elections in the GOP’s favor — if Republicans can muscle them through Congress.

“No transgender mutilation surgery for our children,” Trump told an audience at the Republican Members’ Issues Conference. “Voter ID, citizenship [verification], mail-in ballots, we don’t want men playing in women’s sports.”

It’s the best of Trump. Those are the best of Trump. This is the number one priority, it should be, for the House,” Trump said.

Trump’s exhortations to Republican lawmakers come as the GOP wages an uphill campaign to hang on to a controlling majority in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He framed his legislative priorities as a way for Republicans to capitalize on popular demands within the GOP base that would increase their chances of preserving a Republican governing trifecta.

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President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One before departing Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1, 2026. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PUSH ELECTION OVERHAUL WITH VOTER ID, MAIL-IN BALLOT CHANGES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

Currently, Republicans hold just four more seats than Democrats in the House of Representatives.

The GOP holds six more than Democrats in the Senate.

To keep the numbers in their favor, Republicans will need to beat historical trends. In the vast majority of past cases, parties that capture the White House in presidential elections face blowback in the midterms. Notably, the last time a majority party gained seats in both chambers of Congress in the midterms came under the Bush administration in 2002, following devastating attacks on the World Trade Center.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, left, and President Donald Trump shake hands during an Invest America roundtable in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on June 9, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

REPUBLICANS, TRUMP RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK ON VOTER ID BILL

Trump said he believes Republicans have a shot at bucking the trend come November if they focus on his list.

“It’ll guarantee the midterms,” Trump said of his legislative priorities.

Republicans have already taken strikes towards two of them through the SAVE America Act, a piece of legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and cast a ballot. That bill cleared the House last month for a second time in the 119th Congress.

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Its future is uncertain in the Senate, where Republicans would need the assistance of seven Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster. Democrats, for their part, believe the legislation would disenfranchise voters who cannot readily provide documented proof of citizenship through a passport, REAL ID, or birth certificate. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. has promised a vote on the package despite its long odds. 

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, talks with a guest during a “Only Citizens Vote Bus Tour” rally in Upper Senate Park to urge Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Several members have introduced bills on transgender issues, although none of them have cleared either chamber.

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I’ve never been more confident that if we keep these promises and deliver on this popular agenda, the American people will stand with us in overwhelming numbers, just as they did in 2024,” Trump said.

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