logo
Bill Essayli is out for revenge

Bill Essayli is out for revenge

Politico14-06-2025
Bill Essayli, the recently appointed 39-year-old U.S. attorney for California's central district, spent years in Sacramento angrily chafing at one-party rule — elected but impotent. Now he's ready to show the state's Democrats how it feels to be powerless.
He has already charged David Huerta, one of California's most powerful union leaders, with felony conspiracy for allegedly impeding an ICE arrest by participating in a protest. On Thursday, he stood by as California Sen. Alex Padilla was handcuffed and forced to the ground at a press conference hosted by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Now, other Democratic politicians say they fear being seen at immigration protests, confident that Essayli will seize any chance to put former colleagues behind bars and revel in the fallout.
'As legislators, we know fully well that if he has an opportunity and can somehow connect us to any violence or any disruptions that are going on, he is going to try to arrest us,' Assemblymember Corey Jackson said in an interview. 'It makes me feel crazy that I have to say these things. But it's the truth.'
Essayli is President Donald Trump's man on the immigration battlefield of Los Angeles — a rapid status shift for a politician who not long ago was a junior, little-liked Republican state lawmaker. As an agitator turned enforcer with an ax to grind and the full weight of federal law enforcement at his back, Essayli is animated by many of the same vengeful impulses that drive the president who appointed him. (Essayli did not respond to interview requests for this story.)
'The Democrats that bullied Bill Essayli should be very worried,' said Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican who worked to get Essayli elected before serving alongside him. 'They've never been held accountable. But life changes.'
Any story about the arc of Bill Essayli's career should probably begin on April 10, 2002.
While visiting the Wells Fargo branch where his mother worked, the 17-year-old Essayli witnessed a bank robber leaving the building. As Essayli tells it, he instinctively jumped in his car to follow the suspect, writing down the thief's license number so he could report the vehicle to federal investigators. His actions that day earned him a personal letter from then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, a man who would later go on to investigate Essayli's current boss, who praised the teenager's 'tremendous initiative.'
Raised by Lebanese immigrant parents on the western edge of the Inland Empire, east of Los Angeles, Essayli was long drawn to law enforcement, serving as a volunteer in Corona's police department Explorer program.
After becoming the first member of his family to graduate college, Essayli attended Chapman University School of Law, which has been home to prominent conservatives like John Eastman and Hugh Hewitt. Essayli went into private practice before two years as a Riverside County prosecutor and four as an assistant U.S. attorney. In that role he worked on the deadly 2015 shooting and attempted bombing by alleged homegrown extremists in San Bernardino.
In 2018, Essayli became directly involved in politics, joining a campaign to repeal a gas-tax increase while mounting his own failed, somewhat moderate, candidacy for the state assembly. Four years later, after district lines were redrawn, Essayli ran again on a tough on crime and conservative school issues platform. He was the first Muslim elected to the California State Assembly, representing a diverse, semi-rural region in a district Trump won by 12 points in 2024.
But when the clean-cut Essayli came to Sacramento in 2022, he made little effort to conform to the capital's hobnobby culture and was quite open about how much he detested it. Even fellow Republicans who agreed with his politics disagreed with his tactics and aggressive stance toward Democrats and his own party. His political life, as his friend DeMaio described it, was a 'lonely' one. Upon arriving in the capital he hung the 2002 letter from Mueller on his office wall.
Essayli quickly made a name for himself by taking up red-meat conservative causes and authoring bills that would require school staff to notify parents if their children might be transgender and mandate government identification to vote. He raged against the state's Covid-19 restrictions and criticized critical race theory.
None of his bills became law, but Essayli distinguished himself on the Assembly floor with his penchant for political theater. His pattern of outlandish outbursts and near-physical altercations were of the sort that largely disappeared from the legislative process in the nineteenth century (Jackson himself once had to be restrained from Essayli after the two clashed on the Assembly floor).
Other lawmakers, staff and lobbyists traded accounts of their favorite Essayli episodes. In one, he called the speaker pro tempore a 'fucking liar' on the Assembly floor. In another he banged a fist on his desk in petulant fury, shouting into the void of his muted microphone as state lawmakers looked on.
To like-minded conservatives, this presented a vision of how a disruptive, aggressive opposition party should function. DeMaio, who was elected to the Assembly two years after Essayli and has followed in his footsteps, said he showed how an opposition party could 'illustrate how the other side is wrong' even if you don't get 'drinks paid for at the bars.'
Essayli wasn't worried about rubbing people the wrong way, according to his former chief of staff Shawn Lewis. On a personal level, he was kind and even funny. But Essayli, according to Lewis, was also driven by 'an unshakable sense of what is right and wrong.' The outbursts were no performance, but rather the outward projections of a true believer's frustrations.
'Bill Essayli sees things as they can and should be, not as they are,' Lewis said.
But at least some political observers believe that Essayli's moves were calculated. There are few avenues to power for a hard-right Republican in Democrat-dominated California. Serving as an avatar for the Trump administration's talking points within the state Legislature was one of them. And the performances led to even bigger platforms: regular appearances on Fox News that won him a casual following nationally among the MAGA faithful.
'I think he's a very smart guy,' Anthony Rendon, a former Assembly speaker, said of Essayli. 'There's nothing Bill does that isn't very well thought-out.'
In April 2025, Essayli announced that he would be leaving Sacramento to accept an interim appointment as the top federal prosecutor for seven Southern California counties with a population of nearly 20 million people.
Elsewhere, Trump sought out personal confidants, longtime political allies and loyal defenders to fill U.S. attorney's offices. In his hometown of New York City, Trump named Jay Clayton, who had served as his appointee atop the Securities and Exchange Commission, to the post. Trump's former personal attorney Alina Habba was named the prosecutor in New Jersey, home to Trump's Bedminster golf course. In Washington, D.C., he has placed conservative legal activist Ed Martin, a former lawyer for Jan. 6 defendants, and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro into powerful prosecutorial positions.
Essayli does not have the same direct connection to Trump's circle, but his appointment vindicated the way Essayli had spent his brief time in Sacramento. Upon being named to the post, he made clear he was ready to adopt Trump's ethos.
'I intend to implement the President's mission to restore trust in our justice system and pursue those who dare to cause harm to the United States and the People of our nation,' Essayli said.
Newly backed by a small army of lawyers and special agents, Essayli is aiming at many of the same targets that eluded him as a politician.
In April, he launched a task force to investigate fraud and corruption within homelessness funding sources administered by California's Democratic officials. In May, he threw his support behind a Justice Department investigation into Title IX violations in the state, alleging that transgender athletes were 'violating women's civil rights.' At the beginning of June, Essayli warned an air quality management district in Southern California to abandon plans to impose fees on gas appliances, threatening 'all appropriate action' to stop the regulations.
But it is his role backing Trump's immigration enforcement actions that has given Essayli his biggest opportunity to flex his newfound power. Earlier this week, prominent conservative commentator Marc Thiessen suggested that Essayli may have found a workaround for sanctuary city laws, by charging migrants held on state charges with federal crimes in an effort to force local officials to turn them over to ICE. (Thiessen did not respond to a request to explain further.)
In Los Angeles, his authority ran up against the most basic form of dissent: public protest. As immigration enforcement officials, aided by Essayli's search warrants and federal agents, launched targeted raids of migrant communities, they were met by demonstrators who intended to stand in the way. On Monday, Essayli announced that his prosecutors would use social media and video evidence to pursue protesters who threw objects at officers. Yesterday, two protesters were charged with possessing Molotov cocktails, which Essayli said would be punished by up to 10 years in prison.
'I don't care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted,' Essayli wrote on X after Huerta's arrest on June 6.
Immigrant advocacy and LGBTQ+ rights organizations allege that he intends to use that authority to 'prosecute his political opponents.'
'Bill Essayli spent his short career in the Legislature with a singular agenda: to attack the students and families he was supposed to serve,' said Kristi Hirst, the co-founder of Our Schools USA, an advocacy organization that pushes for LGBTQ-friendly school policies. 'Essayli is not interested in seeking justice.'
Those concerns have now manifested in a political campaign called Stop Essayli run by Jacob Daruvala, a former constituent of Essayli's and a local LGBTQ+ advocate. The lobbying effort, which remains something of a hail Mary, is aimed at persuading Sens. Adam Schiff and Padilla to block Essayli's official confirmation, which would rid him of his interim title.
If a permanent replacement is not confirmed within 120 days, the federal district court for his jurisdiction would instead appoint someone else to serve in the role until a Senate confirmation is successful.
But without the votes to block his path, it is only a delicate historical courtesy, which Schiff and Padilla will have to ask the Senate to respect, that stands between Essayli and a permanent assignment. Daruvala is asking California's senators to withhold their 'blue slips,' a Senate tradition in which committees defer to a nominee's home-state senators for guidance on confirmation.
There is something poetic in that question. After Essayli made his name defying the decorum of the California Legislature, it is only decorum that can halt his upward rise.
Jeremy B. White contributed to this report.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Team Trump is right to sue NYC over its ‘sanctuary' laws — but Mayor Adams isn't the one to blame
Team Trump is right to sue NYC over its ‘sanctuary' laws — but Mayor Adams isn't the one to blame

New York Post

time25 minutes ago

  • New York Post

Team Trump is right to sue NYC over its ‘sanctuary' laws — but Mayor Adams isn't the one to blame

Team Trump had no choice but to sue New York City over its disastrous sanctuary-city laws, especially after a pair of illegal immigrants were accused of shooting an off-duty Border Patrol agent in a Manhattan park. But if President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem think Mayor Eric Adams, the NYPD or any other city agency is in any way responsible for those laws, they're badly mistaken. The suit names Adams, the police and other agencies and officials as well as the City Council as defendants. Citing Adams might be a legal necessity; it explicitly lists him 'in his official capacity,' and it concedes that he has opposed Gotham's sanctuary laws. Advertisement Yet Team Trump has also expressed anger at the mayor personally for the city's failure to cooperate with ICE in rounding up illegal immigrants, particularly criminal ones. Noem blasted Adams outright, along with the council, after Saturday night's border-guard shooting. 'This officer is in the hospital today, fighting for his life, because of the policies of the mayor of the city and the City Council,' Noem roared. Advertisement 'When I look at what Mayor Adams has done to New York City, it breaks my heart to see the families that have suffered because of his policies.' Noem is right to be mad at the council, but she couldn't be more wrong about Adams. Again, he's fought to roll back sanctuary laws. He tried to allow ICE agents back into Rikers so they can take custody of illegal immigrants in the safety of the jails, rather than on the streets, where the dangers are greater and more agents are required. Advertisement He has been cooperating with border czar Tom Homan, and is on record saying he wants to work with the feds. For his pains he's been attacked by the hard left and called an extremist. But the law is the law, and city government must follow it. As Adams noted correctly Friday, any changes to the laws 'must come through the City Council.' Advertisement Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters If the Justice Department's suit can force the council to scrap its sanctuary rules, it'll be a great boon to public safety. Those laws, like the state's sanctuary laws, allow violent illegal-immigrant criminals to elude detention and deportation. Indeed, the city has been ignoring ICE detainers by the thousands, leaving potentially violent illegal immigrants free to roam the streets. The pair accused of shooting the border guard had been in custody here and ICE had requested NYC Corrections to detain them for deportation, yet they were let go anyway. The suit also seems to be on firm grounds legally: The Constitution, Congress and the Supreme Court make it clear that immigration is the responsibility of the federal government. And while states and cities aren't obligated to help with that, they're not allowed to impede federal agents' efforts. Advertisement Letting a wanted illegal immigrant go free is akin to abetting a fugitive from justice. Keep your fingers crossed that Team Trump prevails in this suit. But remember, too, that Adams is on the right side of it.

‘Pod Save America' on Gabbard's Obama allegations: ‘Crock of s—‘
‘Pod Save America' on Gabbard's Obama allegations: ‘Crock of s—‘

The Hill

time25 minutes ago

  • The Hill

‘Pod Save America' on Gabbard's Obama allegations: ‘Crock of s—‘

'Pod Save America' host Dan Pfeiffer railed against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's accusations that the Obama administration led a 'treasonous coup' over the 2016 election. 'I don't think we should call this a scandal,' said Pfeiffer, a former adviser to President Obama, in a Friday episode of the podcast. 'Like I don't know what else to call it, a crock of s—' 'They can't even explain the allegation. It makes no sense,' he continued. 'This is the most easily debunked thing in the world.' Last week, Gabbard released a report claiming that the Obama administration manipulated intelligence to create a false narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Gabbard then doubled down on the accusation and unsealed a formerly-classified House Intelligence Committee report on Wednesday that cast doubts on the European country's interest in the 2016 election and his desire to aid President Trump. She called the Obama administration's reported actions 'the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.' Several intelligence reviews have concluded that Russia sought to influence the contest and that President Vladimir Putin favored Trump in the election. Gabbard, at a White House press briefing on Wednesday, claimed that the evidence pointed to Obama as the main instigator of the efforts and said she was looking into possible criminal implications. President Trump backed Gabbard, calling the intelligence assessment 'irrefutable proof that Obama was seditious.' 'I guess the crime is the creating a false narrative,' co-host Jon Favreau, former Obama speechwriter, said on the Friday episode. 'I didn't think a false narrative could be a coup.' The podcast hosts join fellow Democrats in criticizing Gabbard, particularly as fervor grows surrounding the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which Democrats — and even some Republicans — have called to be released. 'It seems as though the Trump administration is willing to declassify anything and everything except the Epstein files,' said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a statement. Favreau, on Friday's episode, pondered whether the the administration can 'will this scandal in to existence by repeating 'treasonous coup' over and over again.' .

After Lara Trump opts out, president endorses RNC Chair Whatley for NC Senate race
After Lara Trump opts out, president endorses RNC Chair Whatley for NC Senate race

USA Today

time25 minutes ago

  • USA Today

After Lara Trump opts out, president endorses RNC Chair Whatley for NC Senate race

North Carolina is a pivotal battleground state and the Senate race is one of the premier contests of the upcoming midterm elections. There won't be a Trump on the ballot in North Carolina's Senate race, but the president is still putting his imprint on the marquee 2026 matchup. Lara Trump, President Donald Trump's daughter-in-law and his first choice for the U.S. Senate seat in the state where she was born, announced July 24 she won't be running. So the president went to his second choice, endorsing Republican National Committee chair and former North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley in a July 24 social media post. Whatley was Trump's handpicked candidate to lead the RNC during the 2024 election cycle, helping him win the popular vote and secure victories in every swing state, including North Carolina. Whatley co-chaired the RNC with Lara Trump, who resigned after the election. Lara Trump is married to the president's second child, Eric Trump. More: Where did Trump's children go to college? See which schools they attended North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis opted not to seek re-election in 2026 after he announced his opposition to Trump's signature tax legislation, criticizing the bill's cuts to Medicaid. Whatley would give Trump a staunch supporter in the Senate if he wins, with the president declaring, "I need him in Washington." Whatley hasn't announced his plans, but is expected to run for the seat, according to media reports. Trump also endorsed a replacement for Whatley to chair the RNC, Florida state senator and former Florida GOP chair Joe Gruters. More: Melania Trump may get name on the Kennedy opera house. What has she done as first lady? Gruters is a longtime Trump supporter who co-chaired the president's 2016 campaign in Florida with current White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. "I'm looking forward to advancing President Trump's America First agenda as the next chair of the RNC," Gruters said in a statement. More: How Trump and 'terrific guy' Jeffrey Epstein's party boy friendship ended badly North Carolina is a pivotal battleground state and the Senate race is one of the premier contests of the upcoming midterm elections, which will decide if Republicans maintain control of Congress and the ability to enact Trump's agenda. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Democrats are expected to closely contest the North Carolina race. Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is considered a top potential Democratic candidate.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store