Trump's DOJ sues California to block 20,000 suspected noncitizen ballots THREE WEEKS before midterms

The Justice Department sued California on Thursday, seeking a court order requiring the state to quarantine ballots mailed to roughly 20,000 individuals it alleges are noncitizens who were registered to vote ahead of next month's midterm elections. Officials gave Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County registrar Dean Logan 48 hours to examine a password-protected thumb drive bearing those names before filing in the Central District of California. Governor Gavin Newsom described the move as a 'sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicised Justice Department to suppress California voters'. Early voting is already well underway, with 732,000 Californians having cast ballots.

Logan said his office received the drive with the password on a handwritten sticky note and refused to access it, calling it insecure.

The Trump administration has now lost upwards of two dozen court challenges in the past year in attempts to compel states to turn over voter roll data.

Former Maricopa County elections chief Stephen Richer described the mid-voting lawsuit filed in October as a 'real escalation', warning it seeks to disqualify voters based on 'suspect databases, not conclusive evidence'.