WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is escalating its fight with California ahead of next month's midterm election, warning that local officials who process and tabulate ballots submitted by suspected noncitizen voters are putting themselves at risk of criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
The letter Friday from a senior Justice Department official and obtained first by The Associated Press is the latest salvo in an ongoing tussle with heavily Democratic California, coming just a day after the Trump administration sued the state to prevent it from counting mail ballots from people the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed.
“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant. Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” warns the letter from Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general at the Justice Department.
It adds: “If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”
The letter is addressed to the Los Angeles County Counsel's office and also is copied to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, effectively putting the entire state on notice. Those offices and the state attorney general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It is unclear how many individuals the Justice Department might look to try to investigate and charge, though any federal criminal cases in the Los Angeles area would be handled by the office of Bill Essayli, the region's top federal prosecutor and one of the Justice Department officials who filed the federal complaint Thursday against California.
Sent less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 election, the letter adds to simmering tensions over voter rolls between California and the Justice Department and reflects the Trump administration's aggressive hunt for noncitizen voters. It has made the issue a priority this year, including by demanding detailed voter information — including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers — from the states.
The Justice Department has charged about 90 people for various types of election misconduct so far this year, including 50 who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens. There were more than 227 million registered voters in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.
In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters to California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, alleging that as many as 250,000 noncitizens were registered in those states. Election officials there were skeptical of the claim, including Weber, the California secretary of state.
That same month, the Republican administration claimed Nevada had 1,500 noncitizen voters on its voter rolls. But after the federal government identified them to the state, the number of actual registered noncitizens turned out to be zero.
That experience is backed up by research and investigations in various states, which make clear that voting by noncitizens is extremely rare.
The Justice Department lawsuit was filed after California officials were given, and did not meet, a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive that contained a list of 20,000 names. The federal government says those are likely noncitizens who were sent ballots to participate in the Nov. 3 election, although the secretary of state said the administration has provided no evidence to support that claim. The state mails ballots to all registered voters.
Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor, said the letter “ups the ante by threatening election officials with potential criminal prosecution.”
“It is deplorable that rather than work cooperatively and assist states in their election administration responsibilities, the federal government is making escalating threats and unreasonable demands beyond its power in the middle of an ongoing election,” he said.
Justin Levitt, a former deputy assistant attorney general who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, dismissed the idea that an attempted prosecution of an election official using the letter’s rationale would hold up.
“Courts haven’t been buying what DOJ has been selling, and nothing in this letter is calibrated to change course,” he said. “Fortunately, election officials — not just in Los Angeles, but across the country — are equipped to stand up to aggressive bullying. And the law is on their side."
Over 23 million people are registered statewide, and a handful of competitive congressional races in other California districts could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
The Justice Department's escalating threats against California come as Democratic lawmakers are urging DOJ to honor its longstanding policy of not interfering in U.S. elections.
Earlier Friday, Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Dick Durbin, D-Il., wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche demanding that the Justice Department commit to not seizing ballots or other election materials before the midterm elections are certified.
Associated Press writers Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - Ballots are sorted the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - Ballots are sorted the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Kyle Cotner knew nothing about fall foliage when he trolled his White House colleagues in 2007, telling them he was an expert despite having grown up in Florida.
When autumn rolled around, he kept up the bit, sending out weekly newsletters with foliage statistics and information to a handful of co-workers. Today, he has mastered complex mapping systems, calls himself “Leaf Daddy” and owns The Foliage Report, a website that tracks fall color from coast to coast.
Thus, he was speaking with actual authority last week when he said 2026 has been a spectacular year for foliage in New England.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years, and this is the best I’ve seen of New England in that time,” he said. “2020 was a very good year, but this one seems elite to me.”
New England had adequate rain through the spring and summer, plus warm days and cool nights heading into fall, but that wasn’t the case elsewhere, he said.
This story will be updated throughout the day to add new photos. See a curated photo gallery here. The Associated Press is carrying live views of foliage in Vermont, Michigan, Colorado and Washington.
Extreme drought conditions stressed trees in Colorado, for example, leading to a quick and lackluster foliage season. Aspens in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho aren’t as golden this year, he said. But Utah is a bright spot.
“They got enough rainfall in that area,” he said. “You basically want an average amount of precipitation to really bring out the most majestic and colorful leaves.”
Fall foliage is all about trees preparing for winter, according to experts at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
Leaves exist to provide food for the tree. They absorb sunlight through a green pigment called chlorophyll, and that energy is used to convert water and carbon dioxide from the air into glucose, a type of sugar. As days shorten, the tree stops making food, allowing orange and yellow pigments that have been there all along to be unmasked. When sunny days are followed by cold nights, sugars get trapped in leaves, producing red pigments.
Eventually, the layer of cells between a twig and a leaf weakens, allowing leaves to be blown down during wind and rain. The timing varies widely by location. According to Cotner’s research, foliage season starts in Alaska in mid-August and ends in Florida in late December. Hawaii is the only U.S. state without fall foliage, he said.
In Rochester Hills, Michigan, the leaves were changing colors at Yates Cider Mill, which has been in business since 1863.
“Fall is our lifeblood,” said Jared Titus, general manager of the mill. “It's not only how we sustain as a business, but it's also just our passion. Apples are what we do here.”
Patrons were taking in a trail, drinking cider and enjoying doughnuts and other apple goodies.
“It just makes incredible memories for people,” Titus said.
It's “Fritter Friday” at the mill, he added. “They're about as big as your face and just incredible.”
Vineet Madan stopped below a vibrant tree canopy along Seattle's Green Lake to take photos of his 5 and 10-year-old children. The children pointed up toward the mix of yellow, green and red leaves as they stood smiling next to the water.
“I enjoy photography in general and the colors, the diversity you get and of course the end of the day family moments,” he said.
Madan, who took the day off from work to be with his children and wife, comes from a very warm part of India and then moved to a very cold place. He said he's enjoying Seattle's more “mellow” climate and photographing its fall colors.
“With photography, if you have colors, it actually kind of pops,” he said. "Being able to do these fall colors in a nice weather outside is like cherry on the top.”
In Woodstock, Vermont, Osama Alshamrani from Saudi Arabia didn't expect such beautiful scenery.
“There's so many colors,” he said Friday. “I've been getting a lot of messages from my family back home and telling me, ‘Is this real? Oh, this is AI.’ I was like, ‘No, this is actually real.' ‘’
He said he particularly enjoyed seeing the burgundy-colored leaves.
It also was the first trip to the area for Jasmine and Larry Londer, from Dallas, Georgia, who went on a hike with goats.
“That was super fun,” Jasmine Londer said.
Her husband said, “The golds here are like so much brighter than what we get in Georgia.”
For Kirk Giglio, leaf peeping provides an escape from his day job as a nurse in a cardiac and stroke unit at a Connecticut hospital. A photographer who frequently chases storms as well, he is used to studying maps and forecasts, and was hopeful by early September that this would be a good year. A recent trip to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont with his fiancee confirmed it.
“I was just really kind of blown away,” he said, describing sunrise hikes and fog lifting to reveal vibrant colors in New Hampshire’s Crawford Notch and elsewhere. Though some spots were packed with tourists, he still found plenty of secluded and stunning scenery.
“The more I travel, the more I realize how much we take for granted up here,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Mike Householder in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Amanda Swinhart in Woodstock, Vermont, Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this story.
Cattails stand at the shore's edge of Poe Lake on an autumn morning in Coburn, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Kings Mountain is seen over the Matanuska River Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, near Chickaloon, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Autumn-colored foliage in Berkshire County serves as backdrop where Krish Panwala practices soccer with his Wildcat teammates, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Lee, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Aspen trees turn color in Rocky Mountain National Park Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, near Estes Park, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Maple leaves carpet the ground at a cemetery in Freeport, Maine, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A few trees hold onto their fall foliage, the Talkeetna Mountains visible in the background, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, near Chickaloon, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Water flows down the Big Poe Creek on an autumn day in Woodward, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Autumn leaves are seen along the Siglerville Millheim Pike near Milroy, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People look at fall foliage from Loon Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
White-barked aspen trees stand among yellow and orange fall foliage on the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, Ariz., Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cheyanne Mumphrey)
A couple walks through colorful foliage after walking across a covered bridge spanning the Contoocook River, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Henniker, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Fresh fallen hardwood leaves cover the forest floor in Ghent, N. Y., Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Water flows down the Big Poe Creek on an autumn day in Woodward, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Water flows down the Contoocook River passing the colorful foliage of trees towards a covered bridge, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Henniker, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Colorful foliage adds to the view overlooking the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains at Olana, the former home of celebrated painter Frederic Church, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Hudson, N.Y. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
