Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., lashed out at President Donald Trump on Friday after he accused her of using a fake name and revived longstanding allegations surrounding her former marriage.
"The pedophile protection party's president is laundering right-wing conspiracy theories through the most corrupt DOJ in American history," Omar wrote on X.
"Whenever the news turns bad, this creep reaches for one name: mine," she continued. "So let's make it crystal clear. My name has always been Ilhan Omar."
Omar then turned her fire on Vice President JD Vance, adding, "Maybe you should focus on what your VP's real name is."
The verbal pushback came as Trump called on Omar to resign from Congress Thursday after Fox News Digital reported that Omar's birth name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, according to two people familiar with the ongoing federal investigation, including a law enforcement source.
A Justice Department court filing this week, related to a search warrant for her Washington-area home, identified the Minnesota Democrat as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar."
Omar's office disputed Fox News Digital's reporting, insisting, "Ilhan Omar is her real name." Omar has not been charged with a crime.
"It was just revealed that Ilhan Omar's name is not Ilhan Omar," Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday, accusing the congresswoman of using a "fake name" and calling for her immediate resignation. Trump also revived longstanding allegations that Omar's former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, is her brother — claims Omar has repeatedly denied. He pointed out that the name used in the DOJ filings matched that of the man she allegedly married and is related to.
When asked during an MS NOW interview this week whether there was any familial relationship with Elmi, Omar responded, "Not to my knowledge." Her spokesperson later said the answer was sarcastic and reiterated that Omar "repeatedly and unequivocally" denied the allegation.
Federal investigators are probing whether Omar or her father made false statements on immigration paperwork.
Agents searched Omar's Washington, D.C., residence earlier this month and seized her cellphone and passport, while her sister has also been questioned as part of the investigation, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The Department of Justice charged two former FBI officials with lying to Congress about their involvement in FBI investigations into Hunter Biden, including matters involving his laptop.
Former FBI officials Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides, according to the DOJ, falsely denied involvement in the investigations into former President Joe Biden’s son when speaking to Congress. Both surrendered Friday on arrest warrants, according to the DOJ.
"Lying to Congress by anyone strikes at the heart of our democratic system, but when senior FBI agents lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it’s time to bring the hammer of justice down on them," U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said of the charges.
"When senior officials entrusted with safeguarding our nation’s security choose deception over duty, they undermine the very institutions they swore to uphold. Today’s action makes clear that no one is above the law, and we will hold accountable all who obstruct the truth."
The Justice Department claims to possess evidence that shows Benavides discussed the laptop story with others in the FBI, contradicting his testimony that he learned about the story from Wikipedia. Similarly, the department says that it has evidence Floris discussed Hunter Biden with members of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), despite testifying to the contrary.
A statement of facts filed by the DOJ points to 2023 testimony that Floris gave to the House Judiciary Committee where she denied any involvement in the investigation into Biden's son. She answered in the negative to questions about whether there was "ever a discussion at the FITF about Hunter Biden" or if she had "any involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation."
Contrasting these statements, the DOJ pointed to email logs purporting to show that Floris discussed Hunter with colleagues at the bureau.
Benavides, meanwhile, told lawmakers that he read the Wikipedia page on the laptop story when asked where he learned "that there was an ongoing criminal investigation related to the laptop." The DOJ says emails it has obtained show he was in contact with the team working the investigation into Hunter Biden and that he met with the team prior to a meeting with lawmakers.
"Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts. It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election," her attorneys said in a statement.
Floris served as the deputy assistant director and functional head of FITF while Benavides was the task force's section chief.
Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson previously accused Floris and Benavides of participating in a 2020 FBI briefing about Russian disinformation that the senators alleged was intended to undermine their investigation into Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings.
Claims that Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation operation fueled controversy ahead of the 2020 election. The FBI later authenticated the laptop during Biden’s 2024 federal gun trial, when prosecutors introduced it as evidence.
"This morning the FBI arrested two former FBI members of the now dissolved Foreign Influence Task Force, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, both of whom allegedly lied to Congress in 2023 on matters regarding investigations related to the 2020 election," FBI Director Kash Patel said of the arrests. "One of these individuals is on record privately claiming to be ‘running a shadow government’ during the 2020 election. As we’ve said repeatedly: weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI."
Lawyers for Floris and Benavides did not respond to requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Friday. A representative for Hunter Biden also did not respond to an inquiry.
Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to rule out whether the Department of Justice could seek to intervene in states’ midterm election certification processes, saying there are extreme scenarios that could prompt federal action.
Speaking to reporters in Virginia on Thursday, Blanche said it was not his intention to "improperly interfere with elections," but declined to rule out federal involvement if a "doomsday scenario" were to happen.
"Of course, there’s scenarios that we can all come up with hypothetically, you know, some doomsday scenario, for example, right?" he said. "So, I don’t think it’s proper to make any kind of conclusory statements about what’s going to happen in the future, because I have no idea what’s happening in the future."
Blanche said he could not say there were no circumstances under which the DOJ would get involved.
"Of course, I’m not going to say that," he said. "But am I planning my days around the election to be somewhere to not certify? Of course not, no, not at all."
The DOJ's role in elections is limited under the Constitution and federal law, allowing it primarily to safeguard civil rights and prosecute people who violate election law. Federal law does not specifically authorize the department to challenge ballots or delay a state's certification of election results.
Under the Constitution and federal law, U.S. elections are run by state and local officials rather than the federal government.
During a news conference in Norfolk, Blanche was questioned about the DOJ's litigation against states, seeking to force officials to turn over unredacted voter data and halt the counting of ballots cast by thousands of voters the federal government argues are likely noncitizens.
Blanche said the DOJ was "not trying to create chaos" but wanted to alert officials to potential problems.
"I’m not trying to not have an election certified. Of course not," Blanche said. "What we’re trying to do is guarantee to the American people that the only people that are voting are people that are eligible to vote."
In response to Blanche's comments, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats "have been preparing for this for months and will be ready" for whatever administration officials try.
"As Trump and his cronies attempt to steal this election, we are fighting them at every turn," Schumer posted on X. "Our elections must always belong to the voters — not Donald Trump."
The administration sued California election officials last week, arguing they failed to act quickly enough to review names the federal government identified as likely noncitizens. The DOJ asked a judge to block the state from counting mail-in ballots from those individuals unless their eligibility could be confirmed.
The California secretary of state's office said it was given only 48 hours to review roughly 20,000 names.
The DOJ was also weighing additional election-related litigation against states, but a federal judge this week temporarily restricted certain election-related field operations and interviews in nine states through Election Day. The judge stayed the order until Friday evening to give the administration an opportunity to appeal.
Earlier this week, Democratic leaders and election groups filed a lawsuit against the administration, accusing it of "threats and intimidation" ahead of Election Day.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said noncitizen voting poses a serious threat to election integrity, although documented instances of noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections have historically been rare.
A Utah man is facing several charges, including attempting to commit a hate crime, after he allegedly threatened to "blow up" a synagogue.
Skyler AJ Rose, 22, of Ogden, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday, on multiple federal charges, including possession of an unregistered destructive device, threatening to kill or injure people and destroy a building with an explosive, and attempting to commit a hate crime, among other offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah.
"There is no place for hate-motivated violence — attempts or otherwise — in our communities. A place of worship should be a refuge of safety, not fear," U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak for the District of Utah said in a statement. "Thanks to the dedicated work of the FBI and the outstanding efforts of our local police partners, these alleged threats were identified and stopped before anyone was harmed. Let these charges serve as a clear warning: if you attack or attempt to attack a place of worship, you will face the full force of the federal government."
On Dec. 23, 2025, Rose allegedly made multiple threatening posts on social media, according to court documents.
"I wanna blow up a synagogue," one of the posts read, according to prosecutors.
An investigation was launched and authorities learned that the posts were made from an IP address tracing back to Rose's home. The FBI then contacted the Ogden City Police Department to assist with a home visit where authorities said they confirmed the social media handle belonged to Rose.
Investigators executed a search warrant and recovered six improvised explosive pipe bombs and one inert device, explosive precursors and components that officials say could be used to construct further improvised explosive pipe bombs, a black Samsung cellphone and two rifles with accompanying magazines and ammunition, prosecutors said.
A subsequent search of Rose’s cellphone revealed that Rose searched online for a synagogue near him in November 2025.
"Today’s indictment stops in its tracks an alleged plan to carry out a violent attack on a synagogue," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement. "The Department of Justice will take decisive action to protect American worshippers from violent threats, no matter where they occur."
Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls of the Salt Lake City FBI added that "no one should have to fear for their safety because of their faith."
"Every person deserves to worship freely, without threats, intimidation or fear," Bohls said. "The FBI takes every threat seriously. Thanks to the swift, seamless collaboration with our law enforcement partners, we were able to address the threat and protect lives from potential physical harm."
The investigation also allegedly revealed evidence of child sexual abuse material on Rose's cellphone, including hundreds of cached images and screenshots depicting child sexual abuse material, according to prosecutors. Rose was also indicted on charges of receipt and possession of child pornography.
Rose's initial appearance is scheduled for Oct. 23 in federal court in Salt Lake City.
The Justice Department (DOJ) has launched an investigation into longtime Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News.
The probe stems from a criminal referral sent to the Justice Department by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, marking a legal escalation for the high-profile political figure.
Asked about the inquiry by reporters outside the White House, President Donald Trump said he wants his staff held accountable and that he had "heard something about it."
"All I know is I want my people to be honest," Trump said.
Adam Trigg, an attorney for Lewandowski, said his client has not been contacted by the Justice Department and denies any wrongdoing.
"Mr. Lewandowski has not been contacted by the Justice Department regarding any investigation, and he denies any wrongdoing when he was proudly serving his country in a voluntary capacity," Trigg said in a statement posted on Lewandowski's X account.
Lewandowski is a longtime political ally of Trump who previously served as an advisor to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
He also served as Trump's first campaign manager during the 2016 presidential race before being fired that June.
Lewandowski stayed close to Trump, also serving as a senior advisor during his 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
After The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice was reviewing allegations of corruption and personal financial gain involving Corey Lewandowski, he said on X that the report was "another example of the kind of anonymous-source, politically driven reporting that Americans have seen time and again."
Lewandowski added he was proud of his work as a volunteer in "advancing this administration's agenda and (remains) confident that the facts and not anonymous accusations will ultimately speak for themselves."
Two Minnesota federal judges who took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown to the New York Times are now fighting the administration’s efforts to disqualify them from cases involving immigration enforcement.
One of those judges, Patrick Schiltz, is overseeing the Justice Department’s effort to strip U. S. citizenship from Salah Osman Ahmed, a Somali-born man who pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support to terrorists after joining al- Shabaab. The other, John Tunheim, is presiding over the prosecution of a South African national accused of falsely claiming U. S. citizenship and illegally voting in the 2024 election. The Justice Department filed separate motions asking Schiltz and Tunheim to recuse themselves, arguing that their participation in the New York Times report criticizing President Donald Trump's Operation Metro Surge has raised questions about whether they can fairly preside over the cases.
"Impartiality is imperative to ensuring public trust in our Nation’s judiciary," the Justice Department said in a statement posted to X this week. "Judge Schiltz’s and Judge Tunheim’s on-the-record participation in a recent highly partisan New York Times Article, along with Judge Schiltz’s subsequent public comments, unquestionably calls into doubt whether they can be impartial in these cases."
The Justice Department's formal recusal demand follows reporting by Fox News Digital last month detailing unusual behind-the-scenes coordination among Minnesota's federal bench as judges confronted a massive influx of immigration cases stemming from the administration's enforcement operation. The report came after Schiltz and Tunheim were among seven Minnesota federal judges who spoke with the Times in September about Operation Metro Surge. Schiltz sat for a roughly 90- minute interview during which he described the administration's handling of the operation as having created a "grave threat to the rule of law," while Tunheim suggested to the Times that agents carrying out the administration's immigration crackdown were not primarily apprehending dangerous criminals.
DOJ had already raised the prospect that judges who publicly discussed the administration's immigration cases might need to step aside when the Times report was released in September. Last month, DOJ filed a judicial misconduct complaint against Schiltz, Tunheim and other Minnesota judges who participated in the Times report, accusing them of violating judicial ethics rules and asking the Eighth Circuit to investigate. Attorney General Todd Blanche said their conduct had "undermined public confidence in an impartial judiciary in Minnesota."
"It is remarkable that sitting federal judges are giving on-the-record interviews attacking this Administration's policies rather than ruling from the bench," a Justice Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in September. "Judges who have made public comments on pending or related matters should consider whether recusal is warranted going forward."
The Times report in question revealed that Schiltz, Tunheim and the other Minnesota judges handling the flood of Operation Metro Surge cases regularly met, communicated through running email threads and used an informal spreadsheet created by court clerks to identify judges to consult about recurring legal questions. Chief Judge Eric Tostrud previously told Fox News Digital that the judges nevertheless independently decided every case assigned to them.
"The bottom line is that each of us made an independent decision with respect to the merits of each and every petition we were assigned," Tostrud said at the time.
The Justice Department, however, has accused Schiltz and the other judges of "publicly" taking sides in the ongoing battle over Trump's deportation agenda.
"A judge who has publicly taken sides on the political issue of immigration enforcement cannot then preside over a case concerning one of the Justice Department’s key immigration initiatives: pursuing the largest denaturalization effort in Department history to restore trust and integrity in U.S. citizenship," Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote.
Schiltz declined to comment on the Justice Department's new effort to disqualify him when reached by Fox News Digital this week. But when Fox News Digital asked him about the possibility of recusal in September, Schiltz argued there was no basis for him to step aside — and pointed to the fact that DOJ had not asked him to do so.
"I have seen suggestions from the Administration that I might have to recuse in immigration cases, but no one has yet identified any basis for my recusal, which is presumably why the Justice Department has not asked me to recuse," Schiltz said at the time.
"Neither in the New York Times article nor anywhere else have I commented on the merits of a particular case," he continued. "Instead, I have spoken in defense of the rule of law, a component of which is compliance with court orders. That is not a cause for recusal."
Tunheim did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Charles "Cully" Stimson, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation who previously served as a federal prosecutor and military judge, told Fox News Digital that judges ordinarily avoid publicly commenting on matters that could intersect with cases before them.
"These judges did something extraordinarily imprudent, and that is to talk to any newspaper, much less the New York Times," Stimson said. "That was a big no-no."
Asked what he would do if the New York Times interviews were the only facts at issue, Stimson said he would step aside.
"If we were to just go off of the New York Times interview ... I would recuse myself," Stimson said, noting the recusal would only be from the particular case at issue as opposed to all future cases adjudicating the same principles.
Stimson cautioned, however, that recusal motions put judges in the unusual position of effectively judging their own impartiality and said it would be inappropriate to predict how either motion should ultimately be resolved without the complete record.
If either judge denies DOJ's request, Stimson said the government could seek review from the Eighth Circuit, where a three-judge panel would determine whether the government has met the legal standard for recusal.
DOJ declined to comment further Thursday beyond its public statement. A DOJ spokesperson also did not answer Fox News Digital's question about whether the department would appeal if Schiltz or Tunheim denies the recusal motions.
Ilhan Omar is not the "real name" of the Minnesota congresswoman, Fox News Digital has learned.
Her real name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, according to two people familiar with the ongoing investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman, including a law enforcement source.
And if proven in court that Omar has lived her "entire life under an alias," a former Minnesota federal immigration judge tells Fox News Digital that every single form she ever filled out could be "called into question."
On Wednesday, U.S. District Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro filed a motion seeking to prevent the federal search warrant for the congresswoman’s home from being unsealed, which was requested by several media outlets. The motion says the federal government is not yet finished executing the search warrant, and that it shouldn’t be unsealed yet.
"Before the Court are three Applications to unseal ex parte materials and proceedings related to a federal search warrant for the personal residence in the District of Columbia of Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar…" the motion begins.
"That's not her real name," one source said when asked why the motion used the "a/k/a Ilhan Adbullahi Omar" language.
After publication, a spokesperson from Omar's office provided a statement to Fox News Digital disputing the report.
"This is completely false. Ilhan Omar is her real name," the spokesperson said, followed by an attack on Fox News.
In a second statement, Omar's spokesperson referenced Wednesday night's interview on MS NOW, where Omar answered questions about whether she ever married her brother.
"Rep. Omar has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory. She denied it again on MS NOW—and when pressed yet again, responded sarcastically." the spokesperson said. She called those questions a "desperate smear to distract from designed to distract from Trump’s failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress."
The spokesperson said it's "disgraceful that the media continues to give this lie oxygen."
Fox News Digital first reported in the midst of the search of the lawmaker's Washington, D.C. residence that federal investigators are probing whether she or her father committed fraud when filling out her immigration paperwork.
Investigators obtained the elected official’s DNA and seized her personal phone and passport during the Oct. 12 pre-dawn raid.
Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, was questioned by federal investigators last week in relation to the probe, Fox News Digital exclusively reported.
Conservative personality Will Chamberlain first posted the motion on X speculating that the "DOJ believes [Omar] is present in the United States under a false identity."
Fox News Digital has now learned from multiple sources familiar with the investigation that Omar is not the congresswoman’s birth name.
Omar has publicly confirmed that she does not have a birth certificate.
In an official U.S. House biography, her birthday is listed as Oct. 14, 1982, and states that she was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. She says she came to the U.S. with her family as refugees fleeing war-torn Somalia in 1995, when she was a minor.
Omar has not been charged with a crime, and materials presented by prosecutors are only allegations.
Attorneys for the embattled congresswoman did not return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Nathan Hansen, a former federal immigration judge from Minnesota, listed the extent to which the supposed name change could impact the case against the congresswoman.
"You think of all the types of documents somebody like her might have filled out," he said. "There'd be federal student loan and student aid applications, maybe federal housing related applications, maybe public assistance applications, passport applications, passport information and driver's license information, Real I.D. information [and] voting information."
He said if someone has lived their entire lives under an alias, there are many criminal charges that could be levied.
"Sometimes they might say that that would be a wire fraud charge, they always add that one," said Hansen. "And that's pretty broad. But, you know, a lot of these documents are sworn under penalty of perjury."
"If this is not, like, a real legal name, it's got some legal backing to it that every type of government form she's filled out in her entire existence might be called into question," Hansen said.
The representative for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House, has long faced allegations that she married her brother for immigration purposes.
In 2009, she legally married a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. The pair split in 2017. The following year, she was elected to Congress. In 2020, she married her third husband, political consultant Tim Mynett.
In Omar's first public interview since the raid on her home, she sat down with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes. During that interview, she once again denied those allegations, calling them "insane."
"You’re not related to him at all?" Hayes asked. "There’s not some weird kernel of truth…?"
"Not to my knowledge," she replied.
In the wake of the raid, Omar has accused President Donald Trump and his administration of targeting her politically.
"This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies," she said in a statement on X.
"For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back," the post continued. "Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies."
A top federal prosecutor in California said federal investigators have determined that all 20,000 people they flagged on the state's voter rolls as "likely noncitizens" are not U.S. citizens.
Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for California's Central District, told Fox News Digital that federal investigators have evidence that these 20,000 individuals received mail ballots this month. His office sued California last week seeking a court order to prevent any ballots they return from being counted.
"We're not asking California to take any drastic steps other than to sequester the ballots from the suspected noncitizens," Essayli said in an interview on Wednesday. "We believe it's at a minimum of 20,000. That's the floor."
Since then, federal investigators have been sifting through those records to identify people they believe they can verify as noncitizens.
He said 20,000 is only the current tally and expects thousands more names to be added in the coming days.
Earlier this week, Essayli got into a social media spat with Gov. Gavin Newsom over the state's safeguards against noncitizen voting.
Essayli argued that California is allowing people without citizenship onto the voter rolls through its supposedly lax verification processes, while Newsom said the state follows all relevant federal law governing the integrity of elections.
In court filings, California election officials have pushed back against the Justice Department's demands, arguing that county election offices lack both the authority and access to federal records needed to verify voters' citizenship status.
They have also said that sequestering ballots from people on the DOJ list is impossible in cases where the ballots have already been processed. Once a ballot's signature is verified, it is removed from its identifying envelope and processed alongside other ballots, meaning it can no longer be traced back to an individual voter.
"That is true. That's why we're getting an emergency court order requiring them to put those ballots aside," Essayli said. "Ballots have already gone out, people are filling them out and they're being returned in process as we speak. So, the crime is occurring in real time."
The DOJ escalated its push for immediate court intervention Wednesday, asking the judge to rule on its emergency request by noon Thursday. In Los Angeles County alone, officials have already processed 331,000 ballots, according to court records.
Essayli's office filed suit on Oct. 15, roughly two weeks after California sent out mail ballots, including to the possible noncitizens on the DOJ list, according to the federal government.
When asked why the Justice Department didn't act sooner, Essayli explained that investigators did not know exactly which voters would receive ballots until they were sent.
He said California should cooperate with the federal government to expedite the process of verifying voters' citizenship.
That would involve providing additional identifying information, including driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers when available, that federal investigators could cross-check against government databases.
California and dozens of other states treat this information as confidential and have refused to turn it over to the federal government, prompting the DOJ to take several of them to court.
In a separate lawsuit from Sept. 2025, the DOJ tried to compel California to provide its complete, unredacted voter-registration database, including names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and voting histories.
In January, a district court sided with California and dismissed the case, calling the government's request "unprecedented and illegal." The DOJ appealed the ruling and litigation is ongoing.
"If California will make available or submit its records, we can quickly put them through our established systems to determine who's a citizen and who's not," Essayli told Fox News Digital. "They're forcing us to do it the hard way, which we're willing to do because this is very important."
He said every person on the current 20,000-name list was individually reviewed by a federal employee at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security Investigations.
California officials, however, have questioned the reliability of the DOJ list.
Monica Flores, an assistant registrar-recorder in Los Angeles County, said in a court declaration that her office conducted a preliminary review of a sample of 200 records from the list that were associated with LA County addresses.
Of those, 112 corresponded to canceled or inactive voter registrations, meaning no ballot was mailed to those individuals for the November election, Flores said.
"I don't believe that, actually," Essayli said. "The information we have is that they likely received ballots. So we are asking for the names of people they claim whose registration has been canceled."
Essayli added LA County did not say when these registrations were canceled. He raised the possibility at least some were canceled after federal officials provided the state with their list.
"If they're canceling now based on the records we provided, that's great news," Essayli said. "But that's all to be determined."
In the 200-person sample reviewed by LA County, Flores said that among records where birthplace was "meaningfully reported," 38.9% indicated the person was born in the United States, which she called "strong evidence of citizenship."
Essayli similarly disputed this conclusion, arguing that the birthplace information — much like the citizenship information itself — was provided by the registered voters themselves.
"They're not independently checking any of this information," Essayli said. "They're going off the information that was provided to them by the person who registered to vote."
The California Secretary of State's office and the LA County Registrar-Recorder's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
Essayli said that his office is determined to follow through with its investigation because "one noncitizen voting is too many."
"One illegal vote cancels out the vote of an American citizen. There are a lot of local elections that are decided on very few votes," he said. "Noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections, and we intend to enforce that law."
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts released a video of alleged sham marriage mastermind Jennifer Gonzalez detailing her pay-for-play scheme which officials say netted her over $6 million.
The U.S. Attorney's Office accused Gonzalez of orchestrating fake marriages between U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants, charging the immigrants up to $40,000 per marriage.
Gonzalez can be seen on a video recorded by a witness cooperating with federal law enforcement explaining how her scheme worked.
"They will come, I will present them to the wife, they're like, 'yes, I want them, not a problem, I'll be back in, I don't know, three weeks.' And they would leave and make me hold these girls for months," she explained.
"The payment, it's agreed by both parties, OK? This is the first initial payment for the total amount of $38,000. Now, let me calculate that real quick. So $38,000 minus $3,000," she continued, while using a calculator. "That's going to give us $35,000. And then the day of the wedding, you have to bring me, what? $12,000.
"You and I are the ones in this contract, not nobody else. Because we don't want to get your wife and yourself into a...putting in paper about a fake marriage. You know what I mean? Does that make sense to you? Because if anything happened, we don't want them to have any proof that this was fake," she said.
Gonzalez also explained to the witness, who she believed to be an illegal immigrant, that Massachusetts was the best place to go for illegal immigrants because of its sanctuary state status.
"Massachusetts is best place for you to be. That is a fact," Gonzalez said.
"You get health insurance. You get a lot of help as an immigrant here," she explained, adding, "Trump doesn't like this state because...the state defends us very much."
She also revealed that she stopped arranging the marriages around 2025 because of increased federal immigration enforcement.
Gonzalez further told the witness that she owned multiple properties in the Dominican Republic, which she called "my country," and in Puerto Rico.
"Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country," Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, told reporters during a Wednesday press conference announcing the scheme.
A Florida attorney was arrested after she threatened to shoot ICE agents in the head while trying to buy a gun, federal authorities said.
Lisa White, who lives in Mississippi, was arrested in Long Beach after allegedly threatening to "kill federal agents" while attempting to purchase a firearm and pepper spray, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement release.
Authorities said White asked whether specific firearms could penetrate ballistic vests, then allegedly said she would target agentsâ heads if she could not breach their armor.
HSI Gulfport special agents responded, interviewed witnesses and located and arrested White, according to the release.
The investigation began Sept. 23 after an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives alerted HSI to the encounter at High Caliber Guns, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Sun Herald.
White entered the store around 11:30 a.m. and told employees, "I need a gun," according to the complaint cited by the outlet.
She allegedly identified herself as an activist and protester and said she wanted a firearm for protection at a protest because she believed "ICE agents are becoming crazy and wild."
But White also told an employee she wanted to buy a gun to kill ICE agents, according to the complaint.
While discussing the weapons, White allegedly gestured toward her torso and asked whether the guns could penetrate an agentâs body armor. If they could not, she said she would need to "hit them in the head, shoulder, arm or leg," the complaint states, according to the Sun Herald.
A shop employee reportedly warned White that pointing a gun at law enforcement would likely get her killed.
"If I have to die, I have to die," White responded, according to the complaint.
The employee then suggested White buy pepper spray instead of a gun and directed her to a shooting range for training, the complaint states.
White looked at two pistols but left empty-handed after the shop declined to complete the sale and told her she could return in two to three days, the newspaper reported. Store employees then alerted authorities, prompting the investigation.
"The safety of our personnel is paramount, and HSI takes any threat against federal law enforcement officers with the utmost seriousness," HSI Gulfport Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matthew Reidell said.
"We commend the vigilance of the citizens for recognizing these threats and notifying law enforcement immediately, which allowed us to intervene swiftly."
"Threats against federal law enforcement will NOT be tolerated," HSI wrote on X. "HSI will continue to investigate threats against the brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our homeland."
In its release, the agency cited an increase of more than 1,600% in assaults, 3,300% in vehicle attacks and 8,000% in death threats against ICE officers. It did not provide the underlying totals or comparison period.
ICE said President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin have made clear that violence against law enforcement will not be tolerated, warning that people who threaten or attack officers face arrest and prosecution.
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