REPLAY: Federal Prosecutors Announce Charges Against 6 Foreign Nationals in California Voter Fraud Case

We're here today to discuss Operation Protect the Vote, the continuation of this operation that was launched last week. I'm Bill Assele, First Assistant U.S. Attorney. As you know, we've been in this struggle with California to get them to remove non-citizens from their voter rolls. We've delivered a list of over 20,000 non-citizens that we suspect are on their voter rolls. Every person that we've charged last week and this morning is on that list. And so we're going to talk about some of the cases that we are announcing this morning on there. And also you've heard that this morning the United States Solicitor General filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to grant an emergency injunction to segregate the list of 20,000 suspected non-citizen ballots. Again, segregating does not mean they won't be counted. It means that we'll have an opportunity to present. Our evidence in court and make a determination of whether those ballots are legal or not. So we've made that emergency request this morning, but we're not waiting for that injunction. We're moving forward with criminal prosecutions. This morning, we're announcing the additional charges of six non-citizens for illegally registering and voting in federal elections. To date, we've charged 34 individuals under Operation Protect the Vote. These are individuals identified and provided to. California election officials previously in our list of suspected non-citizen voters. Voting is the essence of American citizenship. Illegally attempting to infiltrate and influence our political determinations is not only wrong, it's a crime. It's both a federal crime and a state crime. Among those arrested this morning and charged with illegally voting multiple times in our elections include Mr. Myhar Nixad. Mr. Nixad is an Iranian official, national, living in Canoga Park. Mr. Nixad illegally voted twice in 2024, casting ballots in both the presidential primary and general elections. Before doing so, he registered to vote and certified that he was a United States citizen. In February 2026, Mr. Nixon applied to become a U.S. citizen and falsely stated under oath that he had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen and had never registered to vote or voted in any federal, state, or local elections. That was a lie. The other person that we charge today, among the six, is Chad Goertz, a Canadian national living in Agua Dulce, who illegally voted twice, casting ballots in the 2022 and 2024 general election after registering to vote in 2018 and claiming to be a U.S. citizen. In September 2025, he submitted a voter registration cancellation request, identifying himself as a non-citizen. Acknowledging that he was not eligible to vote. Despite that admission, he applied for naturalization in February 2026 and falsely stated that he had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen and had never registered or voted in any federal, state, or local election. That's just two of the cases that we're announcing today. Five out of the six are already in custody as of this morning. The last person will be in custody shortly thereafter. There are many close elections in our system here. We have elections that are decided by less than 20 votes just within recent memory here in California. So every vote does matter. It doesn't take many illegal votes to corrupt our elections. And every single one of the 30 people, 34 people charged so far are, again, these are all people who are on the list that we provided to the state of California. And again, that's just a sampling of the list. Our goal is not to charge all 20,000 people. Our goal as a state of California is to not count the votes of non-citizens. I'll have a few things more to say here in a minute. I do want to turn it over to the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Los Angeles, Ms. Erin. Good afternoon, everybody. At Homeland Security Investigations, we're committed to protecting the integrity of our nation's elections and safeguarding the rights and voices of every American citizen. The American people deserve an election system that they can trust, and HSI is committed to investigating criminal activity that threatens that integrity. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads, use the full strength of our investigative capabilities, and work to hold those who violate federal law accountable. I want to thank our law enforcement partners, specifically the United States Attorney's Office, for their leadership, collaboration, and continued commitment to protecting the American people. Together, we remain committed to upholding the rule of law, protecting our citizens, and safeguarding the integrity of our nation's elections. So as we've said, we suspect there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of suspected non-citizens of California's voter rolls. We think the number is actually much higher. But the 20,000 lists that we provided are the people that have been manually verified. Again, this list came from California's voter rolls, which were then reviewed by USCIS officials. And only if we could confirm someone had an immigration record where we could prove that they are, in fact, not a citizen. Were they included on the list that we provided to California? So every one of the 20,000 is a confirmed non-citizen, and we believe that they are receiving ballots or have received ballots in this election. Obviously, we don't have the ability, the resources, to go and arrest all 20,000 people. So we are teaming up with our local law enforcement. We're teaming up with district attorneys in the state of California. take on some of these cases in their own communities and we think that's an important message and an important initiative because again, not only is it against federal law for non-citizens to vote, it's also against state law. So I want to introduce the elected District Attorney of San Luis Obispo, Dan Dow, who's going to talk about what he's doing in his county. Good afternoon. I want to thank you, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Saley and to all of our federal partners Thank you, partners, for working with us. Today, my office filed a felony complaint in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court charging John Ruel S. Ambos, A-M-B-O-S, 31 years old, with illegally registering to vote and voting in a California election. This is the first case that my office has filed since we received a list of registrants from our federal partners, and we are close to making filing decisions in 16 other similar cases. Today's complaint charges three felonies. First, voter registration fraud. In August 2016, registering to vote while knowing he was not entitled to register. The second count is perjury, where the defendant declared under penalty of perjury on the registration form, I am a U.S. citizen, knowing that that statement was false. Third, fraudulent voting, actually casting a ballot in the September 14th 2021 gubernatorial recall election while he was not entitled to vote. Complaint also alleges that these crimes were discovered not until October 23rd of 2026. Under California law that special allegations allows them to be prosecuted now despite the distance of time between when he committed those I want to be clear. Mr. Ambos is legally presumed innocent under California law until proven guilty, either by a plea or a verdict. The criminal complaint is an accusation. It's not final proof. Mr. Ambos will be treated fairly. He'll have a day in court, and he's entitled to a fair process, as is every accused individual. Why does this matter? Well, the right to vote in California starts with our California Constitution. Article 2, Section 2, says plainly... A U.S. citizen, 18 years of age, and a resident in this state may vote. Citizenship is not a technicality, it is a constitutional requirement. Millions of immigrants have done the hard work of becoming U.S. citizens. They studied, they waited, they took an oath, and they earned the right to vote. Every ballot cast by someone who did not honor that system dilutes the vote of every other citizen who is eligible to vote. So whether a person is here lawfully or unlawfully, if they are not a U.S. citizen, they may not vote in California's elections. We have a gap in our system. Today, California registers voters based on their word alone. A person checks a box, they sign a statement saying that they're a citizen, and the state accepts it, no questions asked. The state doesn't verify it. So for far too long, California's statewide election officials have treated this as an honor system, and that that honor system is good enough. It is not. Some leaders want California to be a sanctuary state for immigration. Whatever your view on that issue, California must never be allowed to be a sanctuary for illegal voting. A law that is not enforced is not a law at all. We want elections that people can trust. We have to enforce the most basic requirement. Every Californian must be a U.S. citizen to vote. That means real verification. That means real accountability and real transparency. We often talk about foreign interference in U.S. elections as something that a foreign government does. Spreading propaganda, manipulating voters, or funneling money to candidates. But this is a more direct form. When a person who is not a citizen casts a ballot, a foreign national is making a decision that only belongs to Americans. That is interference too. And California's law treats it as a crime. I want to thank the investigators in the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's Bureau of Investigation. They put in significant time on these referrals under very tight time constraints. Their work is not finished. Let me tell you, they're still working today. In addition to today's case, we have 16 more investigations that are nearing a charging decision. And I just want to emphasize something I said earlier. Being named on a referral list is not final proof of a crime. Every case will be decided on the evidence that we review independently, and some investigations may confirm that a person on the list was eligible. I want to close with this. I've got 57 colleagues, other district attorneys around the state of California, and I know that they also view voter fraud as serious business. I'm confident. In fact, I know that a number of them are currently working on investigating similar cases where there's been credible allegations of illegal voting in their counties. If we as state and local prosecutors ignore this problem and don't enforce the law, we may as well just erase that requirement of citizenship from our Constitution. I don't believe Californians want that, and I will not stand for it. To the voters, tomorrow is Election Day. If you are an eligible voter, please vote with confidence. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., but if you're not a United States citizen, do not cast a ballot, whether you're registered or not. If you have information about election crimes, please report those to your local district attorney's office or to the California Secretary of State's Election Investigation Unit. Election integrity is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. It is an American issue. That's such an important point. This isn't political, this isn't a federal thing, this is an American thing, and so it's very encouraging to have local law enforcement leaders stepping up to join us in this effort to protect our elections to make sure all American votes get counted equally. With that, I'll open it up to questions. Can you provide more details on who originally obtained that voter rule and what month that was? That's come up a lot. We prepared a declaration, so what we're prepared to say is in that declaration, we've obtained the voters directly from the state of California. And so I'm... I don't have any additional information other than what's in there. But the voter roll came from the state of California. California sells or makes available its voter rolls. The problem is with the voter rolls that it makes available, it doesn't have all of the voters' personal identifying information, such as if they provided a social security number or a driver's license to register to vote. That would let us confirm really quickly whether or not that person is a citizen or not. So instead... HSI and USCIS had to work through third-party databases and such to try to find that identifying information for each of the people on there. It's a very time-consuming and painstaking process. It may not be, you know, it may not be 100%. That's why we're very cautious in how we're presenting this to the court. But when it's been tested, it has a very, very high confidence rate. L.A. County sampled 200 individuals on there, and all 200 were confirmed to be foreign-born aliens. And And, again, the issue of whether someone is a citizen can be a little bit more complicated than just a black-and-white thing. We're very careful in what we're saying and how we're saying it, but we stand by it. And we wish California would work with us, because I think working with California, like 34 other states are doing right now, they can submit their voter roll directly into the immigration database. It's a program called SAVE, which California, by the way, already does for Medi-Cal recipients. When you apply for Medi-Cal, they run you through the SAVE program to confirm you're a citizen. California's been doing that for 40 years. They could use the same program. Upload their list and this whole issue would be resolved overnight. We wouldn't have to do all this, but they refuse and you'll have to ask them why. Bruce D'Aliello with CBS. In commerce there was a 72-year-old man who was arrested for voter fraud as part of Operation Protect the Vote. He's claiming that he never voted and it's actually a case of identity theft. He said the IRS kind of cleared that up. Was that the guy at the chocolate factory or the cheese factory? Yeah, yeah. The story kept changing? Yeah. Can you talk to me a little bit more about that? Is there a claim that, you know... So, again, everything that we're getting, all these, we're not taking the information we received and just running out there and interviewing people or arresting people. Every single lead, every single name that we're running through, every single database that we can publicly available as well as law enforcement databases. We're working hand in hand with CIS, citizenship and immigration services to make sure that those folks don't have status. Because again, there are people that may have adjusted status at some point become a U.S. citizen. So we're making sure we check every single box before we get out there and actually arrest anybody. And we are doing interviews too, right? So we need to figure out. What the story is, so we know that there have been allegations of identity theft, and we're going to track that down until the end. So every case, in any case that anybody has a reason or an excuse or whatever it is, we'll track it down. And again, if they have not voted and it is identity theft, then we take that off, right? We take that off the list. But so far, everything we've been doing, we're finding valid matches, valid evidence to support the claims. Gotcha. So with Munoz specifically, you're saying that he did vote? Um, I... There's 34 people up there. I have to look up this case. I don't want to litigate any specific case in the media. Most of the people... We're trying to focus on the people who have actually voted. I think everyone today voted. Is that... Correct. Yeah. So everyone that we charged, we're announcing charges on today, did cast a ballot. As far as the other 28 people in there, I don't think all of them casted a ballot. Most of them did. But when it comes to confirming identity, mind you, a lot of them had to, all of them signed an affidavit saying they're a U.S. citizen. So we have their signature. And then we have this signature in their immigration paperwork, and they apply it to naturalize, or they come in for their interview. So we do signature comparison. There's a lot that goes into it to confirm identity, so it's not just, like, taking someone's word. Munoz voted, by the way. Munoz did vote. He's alleged to have voted. Yes, Mr. Dean. So with everything that you've talked about today, and making these new cases public today, What do you want to tell Governor Newsom who's trying to cast a cloud of doubt over your investigation? I would tell Newsom to stop playing politics and to work with us. That way everyone has confidence in the outcome of the election. I think election integrity is a good thing. We believe in sunshine, transparency. Thank you. He's bragging about how many election observers he's sending out. That's great. I think the more the merrier. The more people that are observing our democracy and process and progress, I think is a good thing. And every American should have confidence that when we announce election results, that they are the results of Americans who've casted a ballot and that those votes were counted accurately. And have been reported correctly. And so I would tell the governor to stop it with the politics and to come to the table and work with us. Like I said, this could be resolved in one day. One day we can submit his list through the SAVE program and we'll know exactly who's a citizen, who's not. They don't seem to have a problem when they want our money because they use it for Medi-Cal. In order to get Medi-Cal funds, they use it. So it doesn't seem to be a problem for that. But for some reason when it comes to voting, they don't even want to think about it. I would tell them to knock off the game. Yes, sir. How do you respond to the fact that a UCLA analysis of the 20,000 numbers that went found that 40% of their names aren't even on the bulletin? Well, how did they come to that conclusion? You should go ask. We have no idea what they did. They're not a government agency. They're not an election agency. So we'd like to know what election information they had available to compare it, how they compared it in such a quick time. I actually don't have a lot of confidence in that report. They also likely violated the judge's order. They were not supposed to conduct that analysis with the list. They were supposed to use the list to determine scanning. So they violated the court's order. I have no confidence in their report that was issued. And I think the media should go ask them how they came up with those numbers. Because, again, when L.A. County did their sample, we were able to check it against our records and verify our information was on there. Again, the state, the county does nothing to verify citizenship. They do nothing. So they have no way to rebut when HSI or USCIS says this person has an alien file. Here are their immigration records. We know they're not a citizen. They have nothing to rebut that because California does not verify citizenship. So, again, I haven't read the full Churla report. I think they said some people may not have been registered to vote. Well, then what's the issue? Then there's no ballots to sequester. So, again, I'm not putting a lot of confidence or stock in that report. Yes, sir. What's the actual status of the ballots that are probably going to be? Well, they're not in Dean Logan's hands tomorrow. A lot of them are there already. So the election started early October. I think ballots went out October 5th. And ballots have been returned, been being returned since then. So they are processing the ballots as we speak, which means they're removing the ballots from the envelope. When the ballot is removed from the envelope, it's done. There's no way to ever reconnect that ballot to that envelope, which is why we're asking the Supreme Court today to at least stop the bleeding. And at least... This point moving forward, to put those envelopes in a separate pile so we can adjudicate this issue before those ballots get co-mingled with all the other ballots, which makes it impossible to adjudicate this. So yeah, I mean, you're not wrong. In a couple weeks, our issue, our lawsuit will basically be moot because all the ballots will have been co-mingled together and there'll be no way for us to ever untangle that. So it's a real problem. The contention you're making here is basically the honor system. It's about as full of holes as Swiss cheese at this point. Why is that? Is that, are you saying at this particular point, and if you're that concerned about it, why isn't the Justice Department going to a federal judge and putting a boot there and saying, look, this law is faulty. It's faulty and it's affecting the outcome and the integrity of elections because people have basically not checked or verified these people. California needs to revamp this law, do it by federal order. Well, we have filed our lawsuit in which we have submitted over 20,000 names of suspected non-citizens, and we are asking a federal judge, and this morning we're asking the Supreme Court to do just that. So we are going to continue through with that process, but in the meantime, we're going to keep bringing prosecutions as a form of general deterrence because, again, our goal is to have non-citizens not vote in the meantime. So, um... So we're doing all that. Look, I believe what Reagan said, trust but verify. And so, you know, if you're going to have the honor system, it does have to be enforced. And that's what District Attorney Dowell's point is, is that these laws are meaningless if they're not enforced. And so we're grateful that he's stepping up in his office to enforce these laws. But that makes the point that I was saying. If indeed you're saying there are holes in the system, you're not able to verify these things. But we can't. It's obviously in your mind that the law is faulty. You need to have 122 idiots that are in Sacramento redraw the laws so that they work. It's not the Department of Justice's job to tell California how to write its laws. We're enforcing federal law, and so if I had the ability to do that, if it was appropriate, I would. But California writes its laws, and when they violate federal law, we step in. In this case, we believe that by counting these ballots that we've informed California belong to noncitizens. That is violating federal law. Otherwise, the politics of it will have to be left to the legislature and Congress. Congress can change the rules that apply to the states, but that's not what we're talking about here today. Yes, Ms. McGinnis? Yeah, two questions. Sorry. For the six charged today, are those all lawful permanent residents? I don't know their exact status, but they all—are they? Yes. I'm being told they are. And I think, Brittany, you're pointing something out that's important here. When we're making our case and saying we know these are non-citizens of the voter rolls, it's based on immigration records we have on these people. Unfortunately, 9 out of 10 times, those are legal immigrants. Those are people who are voluntarily going through the immigration process. They are trying to become a citizen. So we're not even talking about people who are in the country unlawfully. The 20 million people who have crossed over the border, we don't even know who those people are, so we can't even look for them on the list. So what you're pointing out is important. This number is a very small number in our viewpoint of what we think the bigger issue is because we're only talking about the known non-citizens that USCIS has records for. So that is a key point there, yes. Sorry, one follow-up, a different question. So if the Supreme Court doesn't provide relief, like, what comes next? What's the plan? Your point about, you know, this could be moved. Like, what happens next? Yeah, I mean, we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. But again, our whole lawsuit was to prevent these ballots from being co-mingled. And, uh, and prevent them from being counted if it's confirmed they're not citizens. So if the Supreme Court doesn't step in soon, then the election officials are going to keep processing the ballots and they'll be done counting in a couple of weeks or probably two, three weeks. And so, um, you know, it would basically. So, when you have a legal permanent resident voting, when they know they can't, how do Is the U.S. government able to withdraw the privilege of having a green card from them? No, that's a good point. I'm not an immigration expert. I do believe that if you vote, if you register to vote, or if you vote as an LPR, it will have detrimental effects on your application to become a citizen. So I can't speak to that. I think it's a question better for USCIS and how they handle it. But I will tell you, it's not a good thing for their application in general. To misrepresent yourself as a citizen. Two more questions. Anything online? We don't want to ignore our virtual friends. Anything else? Do you think the Supreme Court is going to take us to the case? You know what? We have a lot of confidence in our things. We've submitted a lot of evidence that we feel, again, this isn't speculation, this isn't a theory. We have the immigration records tied to the voter file, and we believe we have pretty good evidence. You know what was interesting is when we had the hearing last Tuesday, we had the witnesses there to testify about the records and the process, and we're ready to present our evidence. But unfortunately, the court didn't allow us. But we have a lot of confidence in this. If you read our declarations, you can see the amount of work that went into this. You have about 800 or 900 U.S. government employees at USCIS that sat down and looked at every individual record that's on that list. Again, a lot of work went into this. There are some questions online being answered. I have to press the chat button. Too many. Yeah, it's too many. Thank you. I think some of these questions were asked. It says... So some of the people arrested say they did not intend to break any laws, that they were confused because of the difficulties or the reason that they would have been barred. Look, I think part of the problem is the way California conducts its system, which it's up to them. I mean, they basically, if you interact with the DMV, they are. heavily encouraging you to register to vote. Some people have said, I thought I was allowed to vote because the election officials told me I could register to vote. And so I think California, unfortunately, is facilitating a lot of this crime. But every non-citizen knows, they're admonished when they're given status, that you are not allowed to vote. While you are going through this process. My parents went through the lawful immigration process. My parents were naturalized. They were clear about the law. They knew they weren't allowed to vote until they were citizens. And they would have never dreamed of violating that. So unfortunately for them, if they cast in a ballot, it's going to be very hard to say, I didn't know I couldn't vote. But it's clear that you have to be a citizen to vote. And they signed an affidavit saying they were a U.S. citizen. So I think they're going to have a tough time with that case. All right. Thank you very much, everybody. I have one. One question? Yes. Last question. You say $20,000. Yes. So what about instead of $20,000 is two million, and tomorrow make a difference on the election results? That's the problem, is we think the number is higher. It's higher than $20,000. $20,000 is the floor, not the ceiling. And, um... We're very concerned about what effect this can have on the outcome of close elections. Obviously, presidential elections in California, you know, it's not close in some regards. But when you talk about congressional elections, we had a seat in Orange County that was decided by a couple hundred votes. There was a seat in the Central Valley, I think 200 votes. We had a state senator seat decided by less than 20 votes. So I think that is the problem and the concern is if California is allowed to count at least 20,000. Votes from non-citizens, how do we know whether or not it's going to have an impact on any upcoming election? So we're very concerned about that, and that is why we're asking the Supreme Court to take action now. Thank you very much, everybody.