The Department of Justice charged 28 people in California with voting illegally or unlawfully registering to vote in federal elections.
Said by NBC Bay Area, Checked
- Sources
- 5 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 90%
Apple News TodayOct 21, 2026
The DOJ's own press release and several major outlets (NYT, Guardian, NPR, ABC) report that the Justice Department charged 28 people in California with unlawful voting and related election crimes, so the core claim holds.
What was said
… This Department of Justice will not look the other way. In federal elections Unfortunately, the same can't be said for California and l.a. County. That's acting, Deputy Attorney General Trent Maccott at a d o j press conference on Monday. The department announced that it was charging 28 people in California with illegally voting or illegally registering to vote. It comes after a separate lawsuit asking the state to not count up to 20,000 registered voters ballots because prosecutors believe they might be non-citizens. …
Apple News Today · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. The DOJ press release is titled 'Justice Department Charges 28 Foreign Nationals in California Election Crimes,' a primary government source confirming 28 charged defendants in California.[2]
Supports. The Guardian and NYT report that the Justice Department said 21 of the 28 charged people cast unlawful or illegal ballots, which matches the 'voting illegally' element of the claim.[4][5]
Supports. NPR and ABC News both report the charges as 28 people charged with voting crimes or unlawful voting in California.[6][7]
Context. ABC describes the charges as unlawful voting plus other election-related offenses, and the defendants are described as foreign nationals and green card holders. The claim's wording covers the voting and voter-registration charges and does not contradict these details.[2][4][7]
Context. Commentary from the California governor's office and NPR disputes the broader rhetoric of mass voter fraud and says noncitizen voting is rare. This is a dispute about how significant the cases are, not about whether the 28 charges were filed.[1][3][6]
Sources
7 sources: 1 fact-checker, 2 primary, 3 tier 2, 1 not rated
- 1Noncitizens don't vote in large numbers in US elections. ...snopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2Justice Department Charges 28 Foreign Nationals in ...justice.gov · primary source · cited for: supports, context
- 3Trump DOJ makes shocking admissions; taken to task for ...gov.ca.gov · primary source · cited for: context
- 4DoJ charges 28 green card holders in California over ...theguardian.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 5Justice Dept. Charges 28 in California With Voting-Related ...nytimes.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 6DOJ charges 28 people in California with voting crimesnpr.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 7DOJ charges 28 with unlawful voting, other election-related ...abcnews.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post