First Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli slammed the Los Angeles Times on Friday for publishing a report that claimed evidence of homeless voter fraud in the recent primaries was "unfounded." 

The Los Angeles Times report noted that no evidence of widespread voter fraud occurred in the city, but that a few homeless people on Skid Row were paid to register to vote and sign ballot petitions. 

"The LA Times headline says voter fraud claims are 'unfounded' — then their own reporting confirms it," Essayli posted on X. "Their article documents homeless individuals being paid cash to register to vote. That’s a federal crime."

Essayli highlighted that paying someone to register to vote was a violation of the United States Code, which states that paying someone to register to vote is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up $10,000.

“Three people told The Times they accepted a couple dollars to sign, with one saying he signed multiple signatures using various names and received $10," Essayli continued in the post, quoting a line from the article. "That’s not unfounded. That’s voter fraud and it’s exactly why there must be investigations."

The report comes after a Marina Del Ray woman admitted in a plea agreement last month that she illegally paid people on Skid Row to register to vote so they could sign ballot petitions, and in some cases those homeless people did not have an address they could put down, so she used her old one. 

The woman acknowledged in the agreement that since California sends mail-in ballots to all voters with an address, there could have been some ballots sent to where the voters didn’t live.

The report also comes after last week's Los Angeles mayoral primary, in which Republican Spencer Pratt failed to advance to November's general election, despite coming in second on election day. In California, ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive as much as a week later. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.