U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli told Breitbart News exclusively on Monday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) needs to “turn on the TV” and pay attention to riots engulfing his city.
Essayli was responding to claims by state and local officials that President Donald Trump was overreacting by federalizing the California National Guard to stop the riots, and that state and local authorities could cope.
The federal prosecutor spoke to Breitbart News from a command center in L.A. monitoring the riots.
“From here, it doesn’t look good,” he said, saying Antifa-style agitators and anarchists had been coming to the city.
Essayli vowed to crack down on the riots, saying rioters can expect “very heavy-handed enforcement” from the federal government.
Many of those already arrested, he noted, will face federal charges for looting under such laws as the Hobbs Act, as well as charges related to assaulting officers and using Molotov cocktails.
“I can say that nothing they are doing will affect our immigration enforcement activities,” Essayli added, saying that the federal government remained more committed than ever to carrying out the mission of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite the riots and the opposition of state and local officials.
“They think they can stop us by rioting and screaming,” he said. “That may have worked in the past. This is a new administration in town, and this president isn’t backing down. He’s doubling down,” Essayli added.
Essayli said that it was not President Trump who “escalated” the violence, as L.A. Mayor Karen Bass claimed. Rather, it was the rioters who escalated — not just attacking law enforcement, but also residents, some of whom were stopped by the mob on the freeway and terrorized in their cars as they were trying to drive home.
The U.S. Attorney declined to comment on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ), was investigating Gov. Newsom, after he threatened to withhold federal taxes and appeared to obstruct immigration enforcement.
He also would not comment on whether the federal government would arrest Newsom, as “border czar” Tom Homan had suggested it could, if Newsom obstructed ICE (though he added a warning: “FAFO, right?”).
He did, however, point out the hypocrisy of local leaders who were obsessed with the arrest Friday of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California President David Huerta.
Essayli said that officers had no idea who he was when they arrested him, and had treated him no differently than other suspects. He said it was notable that elected officials had not bothered to inquire about others who were arrested — only Huerta.
Asked if there were any signs of hope, Essayli said that for the first time, he heard local leaders condemning violence, which he said many had not done during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. However, he said, they were continuing to obstruct the due process of law.
ICE agents, he said, were enforcing court orders signed by judges and carrying out their duties — and would do so regardless of state and local leaders or laws.
Essayli was a Republican state legislator before being appointed U.S. Attorney by President Trump. Prior to his political career, he also worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the district.
With state and local elected leaders largely ignoring the concerns of residents, Essayli has become, effectively, the only voice representing the concerns of locals who are fed up with crime, violence against police, and the burden of illegal migration.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
