California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter on Oct. 31 to the Chief District Judges of the four federal district courts in California. The letter urges judges to take extra care with any request for a search warrant to seize ballots, election records or certified voting technology before the state certifies its election results.
The governor’s office said the letter responds to threats from the Trump administration against election officials ahead of Tuesday’s election. Newsom wrote that he is not writing about any pending warrant request. He said he is unaware of any such matter in the courts.
The letter cites several recent actions by federal officials. It says Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, the second-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, sent letters to state and local election officials warning of legal jeopardy if they did not comply with federal demands. It also says Bilal Essayli, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California, has threatened in social media posts to prosecute election officials who process ballots cast by people the United States asserts may be non-citizens.
The letter says federal grand jury subpoenas, which are legal orders to provide information, have also been issued to Los Angeles County election workers. It says recent reports suggest the Justice Department has continued criminal investigations of election officials who did not comply with its demands. That came, the letter says, even after Judge David O. Carter, who is presiding over United States v. California, advised that it “would be wise that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately.”
Newsom wrote that California’s chain-of-custody, documentation and retention laws for ballots already ensure evidence is preserved under court supervision. He said that, in his view, there is no legitimate law enforcement reason to seize ballots or the equipment used to count them. He also wrote that he has “grave concerns” federal agents will seek such warrants before certification.
Newsom wrote that federal officials’ tactics and rhetoric suggest that, having lost repeatedly in federal civil cases, they will pivot to criminal proceedings. He wrote that what he called the weaponization of the Justice Department to serve the partisan and personal ends of the current President supports concerns about efforts to undermine election integrity. He said those concerns include seeking to prevent certification of results that recent polling suggests will flip control of at least one chamber of Congress.
Newsom enclosed a resource for judges: “Questions for Assessing A Search Warrant for Election Materials,” published in September 2026 by the UC Berkeley Edley Center on Law & Democracy. The governor’s office described it as a nonpartisan expert legal resource. The letter says it is meant for magistrate judges and district judges who may consider warrant applications before California’s election results are certified by Dec. 11, 2026.
The source material comes from the governor’s office and does not include a response from the Justice Department, McCotter or Essayli. It does not say whether any warrant has been sought.