The U.S. Department of Justice sent subpoenas to at least two California election officials earlier this month, ordering them to appear before a grand jury on Nov. 4, the morning after voting ends in the midterm elections, according to copies of the documents reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.

The subpoenas were served last week, according to the records, and show the broadening scope of the DOJ’s efforts to pressure California officials ahead of the midterm election. The DOJ has sought to force the state to set aside 20,000 ballots, as the Trump administration contends, without proof, that noncitizens are voting illegally en masse. They seek communications between local and state officials about the federal government’s series of demands that California set aside ballots it has charged may have been cast by noncitizens, as well as procedural information about how election clerks verify voter citizenship.

More subpoenas to other California county and state employees may follow, as DOJ leadership has directed officials to escalate criminal investigations into voting procedures and federal officials sent a new wave of subpoenas out Thursday, according to reporting by Bloomberg Law. It wasn’t clear where those subpoenas may have landed.

The governor and secretary of state’s offices did not provide any additional information about whether election officials elsewhere in California had been subpoenaed.

“It is totally inappropriate for the federal government to use its power to go after local officials for following state and federal law,” a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom said in response to a Sacramento Bee inquiry.

A spokesperson for the Sacramento County elections office told The Bee on Thursday that none of their employees had been subpoenaed. But they said officials were braced for the possibility given DOJ threats and the Bloomberg Law report.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and other federal officials have repeatedly threatened to prosecute local election officials who knowingly process ballots by noncitizens. Experts say such prosecutions would be difficult to carry out, while state election officials have said they’re committed to running elections according to state law.

Earlier this month, the DOJ sued in federal civil court, seeking to force the state to not count some 20,000 such ballots.

A judge rejected that lawsuit on Wednesday, and during the proceedings he warned Essayli against threatening election workers.

“This court believes that it would be wise that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately,” said Judge David Carter said in a Tuesday hearing.

In a statement on Thursday, the Los Angeles County Clerk’s Office cited Carter’s warning.

“Judge Carter’s admonishment about threats directed at election officials on Tuesday was well-placed and appreciated,” said County Clerk Dean Logan. “At every step, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach. Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal law. Clear court rulings at both the U.S. District Court level and the Court of Appeals have confirmed that. Threats and intimidation have no place in elections.”

The Justice Department last week charged 28 people with voting illegally in California elections because they lack citizenship, a fraction of the more than 23 million registered voters in the state. Federal agents have also delivered letters to county elections offices around the state demanding they review certain voters’ citizenship, which in some cases contain inaccurate information about who is registered to vote where, according to reporting by CalMatters.

At least two Sacramento residents were among the 28 people charged by federal officials. One man told The Bee he was mistaken about the law but cast his vote after registering at a polling place and being given a ballot. He is charged with a misdemeanor.

In his ruling rejecting the DOJ’s lawsuit, Carter said the federal government had the right to investigate instances of criminal voting but not to tell California how to run its elections.

“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the executive branch,” the judge wrote.

“The DOJ’s actions,” he continued, “are indicative of a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials.”

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