Trump election fraud crackdown lands first arrest, putting longtime critics in White House crosshairs

The first arrest in what a Trump administration prosecutor says will be a broader election fraud crackdown was announced Friday in Los Angeles, as the White House seized on the case to hit back at longtime critics.

First Assistant U.S.

Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli announced a Honduran national was charged with two felony counts and could face deportation if convicted, while criticizing California’s current voter-registration safeguards and renewing DOJ demands for a voter-roll audit .

"Today’s arrest is the first of many to come.

Unfortunately, because states like California allow non-citizens to easily register to vote and receive a ballot by mail, there’s no telling how many non-citizens are currently registered to vote," Essayli said in a statement announcing the capture of Darwin Jonathan Rivera-Flores.

CALIFORNIA ACCUSED OF BLOCKING FEDERAL VOTER ROLL AUDIT AS DOJ ESCALATES PROBE OF ELECTION FRAUD CLAIMS "We again renew our request that California immediately comply with our requests to audit their voter rolls so that all voters can have confidence in our elections." Fox News Digital reached out to Gov.

Gavin Newsom for comment.

Rivera-Flores, of the Winnetka neighborhood west of Van Nuys, was charged with fraudulent voter registration and false claim of U.S. citizenship.

He did not vote in an election, according to the DOJ.

Rivera-Flores entered the U.S. during the George W.

Bush administration and was a green-card holder, but not a U.S. citizen, according to the affidavit.

FOUR NONCITIZENS CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY VOTING IN 2020, 2022 AND 2024 FEDERAL ELECTIONS IN NEW JERSEY He was previously charged with a misdemeanor for "disrupting immigration law enforcement operations" at a federal building in Camarillo, California, and sentenced to one year of probation.

Rivera-Flores also allegedly sent a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent a slew of taunting text messages, calling the officer "not the good guy" and saying he could not "wait until the midterms" because he believed the agent would not have qualified immunity — legal protection that can shield law enforcement officers from certain civil claims arising from their official conduct.

Text messages between Rivera-Flores and the agent reviewed by Fox News show several profane jabs directed at the officer, including, "How you f---ing treat people ... that’s not f---ing protecting, you’re hurting these people," and, "Chris, you know you’re a b----, right." CLICK BELOW TO READ THE AFFIDAVIT Rivera-Flores obtained the agent’s number after the agent unblocked it on his government-issued phone to contact him during an investigation, according to the affidavit.