Trump claims call to prosecutor helped Hilton advance in California runoff

On June 23, Donald Trump told a rally in Macungie, Pennsylvania, that he had called a federal prosecutor in California and told him, “Do me a favor. Take a look.” Trump said about an hour later Steve Hilton had advanced, and he described the prosecutor as the “very powerful, very good U.S. attorney in California.”

An election-fraud inquiry was already underway in the Central District of California. On June 5, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney, said his office had “multiple election fraud investigations underway” with the FBI. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office was monitoring the situation and ready to protect voters, while Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office criticized Essayli for speaking publicly while ballots were still being counted.

With 99% of votes counted by June 24, Xavier Becerra led the all-party primary with 2,586,954 votes, or 28.1%, and Hilton had 2,273,750 votes, or 24.7%. California’s top-two system sends the two highest vote-getters, regardless of party, into the general election. Late-arriving mail ballots and drop-off ballots often continue to shift the count after Election Day, which can keep margins moving for days.

Hilton, a former Fox News host and former British political adviser, has campaigned on lowering the cost of living, improving public safety, housing and education, and ending what he calls one-party Democratic rule. He has also argued that California would benefit from a more cooperative relationship with the Trump administration and has said he had seen no evidence of fraud in the election. Hilton said his campaign had teams and lawyers “standing by,” but that he was not seeing anything that would justify intervention.