Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan refused to open the thumb drive provided by the DOJ due to security concerns.
Posted by The John Phillips Show, Checked
- Sources
- 5 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 93%
The John Phillips ShowOct 17, 2026
Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan's own October 14 statement, carried by AP, The Hill, CBS and PBS, says his office did not open the thumb drive because doing so would conflict with data privacy and information security protocols, and that the device was not a secure medium.
Our two reads of who says this, and how, disagree, so it counts as the post's own claim.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… California has obstructed every effort of that, so we've kind of had to go an alternative route where we got the, uh, voter through commercially available sources. Um You know, anybody can buy the voter rolls. Campaigns, private companies. Logan said he would not open that's how everyone keeps sending me text messages drive because of security concerns. Okay, that's a that's a strange one. Dean Logan, who is a our questionable registrar of voters, has had a very shady history in Los Angeles County. …
The John Phillips Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Logan's official statement says the office has not accessed the USB drive because doing so would conflict with established data privacy and information security protocols, and that the device is not a secure medium.[2]
Supports. AP reports Logan said he did not consider the thumb drive a secure device and had not accessed any files, and the Los Angeles Times reports he said accessing the device would break security protocols and that he would not open it.[1][5]
Supports. CBS and PBS both report that the county would not review the drive's materials because doing so would conflict with security protocols, consistent with the claim that he refused to open it.[3][4]
Context. The post's own passage says Logan 'would not open' the drive 'because of security concerns', so the extracted claim is a faithful paraphrase; NPR later reported the county initially declined to open the list, and the DOJ then emailed a spreadsheet.[6]
Sources
6 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 primary, 3 tier 2, 1 not rated
- 1Justice Department threatens California over claim of noncitizen votersapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Statement from Dean Logan Regarding U.S. Department of ...lacounty.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 3Justice Department sues California, claiming it's mailing ...cbsnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 4Trump administration sues California to block counting of alleged noncitizen mail ballotspbs.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 5Big assertions, sharp exchanges, little clarity define DOJ ...latimes.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6Some on DOJ's 20,000 'likely' noncitizen list in California appear to be U.S.-bornnpr.org · tier 2 · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- The Trump administration sent a thumb drive to Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan's office containing a list of likely non-citizen registered voters and a sticky note with a password.True
- The Department of Justice provided the Los Angeles County Registrar's office with a password-protected thumb drive containing a list of names the federal government believes are likely non-citizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot.True
- The Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Bill Isaley sent a letter and a thumb drive to Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters Dean Logan and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber alleging there are 20,000 illegal ballots in Los Angeles County.True
- The U.S. Justice Department delivered a thumb drive containing a list of 20,000 names to Los Angeles County election officials with a 48-hour deadline to investigate them.True
- The Department of Justice delivered a thumb drive to Los Angeles County containing the names of 20,000 people on California's voter rolls who the federal government says are likely non-citizens.True