(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) An amended lawsuit has accused John Pelletier, the top law enforcement official in Maui, of participating in a cover-up of a 2018 gang rape committed by disgraced hip-hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs, NFL player Odell Beckham Jr. and comedian Druski.
Filed by accuser Ashley Parham, the updated lawsuit claimed on March 7 that Pelletier had bribed a neighbor who had attempted to assist the victim after the gang rape. At the time, Pelletier worked as a police captain in Las Vegas.
Parham said she was raped by Combs, Beckham and Druski at a Las Vegas residence before she found refuge at a neighbor’s home, prompting an emergency call.
The lawsuit, originally filed in October 2024, alleged that Pelletier falsely identified himself as a Contra Costa sheriff’s deputy and explained he was responding to “several noise complaints.” However, he reportedly offered no assistance to Parham and instructed her to find a way home instead.
NEW: Maui Police Chief John Pelletier named in Diddy lawsuit, is accused of being a co-conspirator.
Pelletier is accused of being involved in a cover-up for a gang r*pe when he was working as a Las Vegas police captain.
The lawsuit further claimed that Pelletier handed the neighbor what appeared to be an envelope with cash. The neighbor then rushed into a nearby room and returned empty-handed.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen demanded that Pelletier be placed on leave pending an investigation.
“While the allegations in the amended complaint remain unproven, they are serious in nature and involve claims of alleged criminal conduct,” Bissen wrote in a press statement. “As with any such legal matter, due process must be observed, but the existence of these allegations alone presents concerns regarding public trust and the effective functioning of the department.”
Pelletier has categorically denied the allegations. “We are confident that the evidence will demonstrate these claims to be false and will expose those who are deliberately trying to manipulate the legal system to spread misleading narratives,” he said through a spokesperson, reported the New York Post.
The initial lawsuit was filed against Combs and did not name either Pelletier, Beckham or Druski. Perham said the men took turns raping her and later identified Beckham and Druski as the other perpetrators.
According to the lawsuit, Druski poured baby oil on the woman’s body before “treating it like a slip and slide and knocking the wind out of [Parham] due to his enormous size.”
Beckham dismissed the allegations on X, writing: “There is absolutely no truth to those allegations. I do not know and have never met the person that filed the suit.”
Druski also refuted the claim, noting that at the time of the alleged assault, he was not a public figure.“I was broke living with my mom without any connections to the entertainment industry at the time of this allegation, so the inclusion of my name is truly outlandish,” he wrote.
“My heart breaks for actual victims of abuse, but I’m fully confident that the evidence will expose this falsehood and the individuals who are maliciously trying to game the legal system to peddle false narratives,” he added.
“It’s been pretty wonderful, I have to say,” O’Donnell said in the video. “And the people have been so loving, so kind and so welcoming. And I’m very grateful.”
The 62-year-old added she is in the process of getting her Irish citizenship.
O’Donnell alluded to politics as the reason she felt the need to flee.
“It’s been heartbreaking to see what’s happening politically and hard for me personally as well,” she continued. “The personal is political, as we all know.”
O’Donnell added she would think about coming back to the States in the future.
“I miss many things about life there at home and I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country,” she continued. “And when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back.”
It just so happened the Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin was at the White House on Wednesday and a reporter decided to question why he allowed O’Donnell in the country.
“Ireland is known for very happy, fun-loving people. Why in the world would you let Rosie O’Donnell move to Ireland?” the reporter asked.
Trump, who has a longstanding feud with the comedian, praised the question posed to Martin.
“Thank you, I like that question,” Trump said. “Did you know you have Rosie O’Donnell? Do you know who she is?”
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Podcast host Alex Jones claimed on Wednesday that he received “credible” information about an ongoing assassination plot against him—alleging that Ukrainian individuals are behind the threat.
In a video shared on X, Jones said that General Michael Flynn, the former U.S. national security advisor, received intelligence from “high-level” sources about the plot. Jones has not shared any documents regarding the plot.
“There’s a contract out on me,” Jones said. “Of course, it’s tied to the Ukrainians.” Jones is seen driving an SUV in the video, saying that Flynn extended the information to one of his shows’ producers.
General Flynn just called to warn Infowars that he has confirmed from high-level Intel sources that there is a credible assassination plot, actively taking place against me! pic.twitter.com/SwnzHXt9hS
Jones’s allegations come less than a week after InfoWars reporter Jamie White was fatally shot outside his Texas apartment. Skeptics might think that the bombastic Jones is exploiting the death for attention.
According to the police’s account of the killing, White confronted a group of would-be burglars attempting to break into a parked vehicle before he was shot. His body was found near midnight and no suspects have been apprehended.
“It’s looking worse and worse that they got to hire a group of something … to send a message to everybody with Jamie,” Jones warned. “This is pure intimidation; this is terrorism and it’s all they’ve got left.”
“This is the fight for America in the future—and, like I said, I knew this weeks ago,” he continued.
Jones also said there were individuals also trying to kill Elon Musk, the tech mogul helping President Donald Trump expose fraud and government waste through DOGE. On Monday, Musk claimed X suffered a cyber attack from a Ukrainian IP.
Jones’s comments garnered more than 2 million views and came on the heels of two swatting incidents targeting InfoWars host Chase Geiser.
Geiser released security camera footage showing between six to eight officers using a PA system to order him out of his home at 2:00 a.m.
“I was handcuffed in the middle of the street, presumably at gunpoint though I couldn’t tell because of the light being shined on my face,” Geiser said. “I was then led into the house where my wife was woken up and we were informed that they received a call from someone pretending to be me and threatening to kill my family.”
Swatted for a second time in 12 hours. Here’s the video.
Americans for Public Trust sent the complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics and accused her of misusing taxpayer funds on dance “training,” according to the New York Post.
Ocasio-Cortez allegedly used her Member Representational Allowance to pay $3,700 to “Juan D Gonzalez” and $850 to “Bombazo Dance Co Inc” in December 2024.
The charges were listed as “training.”
“Representative Ocasio-Cortez has made expenditures from her official office account that she herself contends should have been reported to the FEC, presumably because they were made for campaign purposes,” the group wrote in the complaint.
It requested a full investigation be opened on the Squad member.
“If it is revealed that Representative Ocasio-Cortez has demonstrated a pattern of using her taxpayer-funded MRA to pay her campaign expenses, we further request a full investigation be commenced by your office,” the complaint added.
Ocasio-Cortez previously took to X on Saturday to deny the allegations when animator Paul Szypula shared the page showing the dance payment.
100% wrong. None of this is taxpayer money, this is an FEC filing. Be loud and wrong about something else. Try again next time
“100% wrong. None of this is taxpayer money, this is an FEC filing,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Be loud and wrong about something else. Try again next time.”
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, spoke with Fox News Digital regarding the complaint.
“Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s troubling payments from her taxpayer funded account for activities such as dance classes should be investigated,” Sutherland told the outlet. “In the era of reining in government spending, the American people deserve to know lawmakers are being good stewards of their tax dollars.”
Ocasio-Cortez previously faced another ethics probe in 2023 after accepting a free ticket to the Met Gala in 2021.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It was a clearcut case of self-defense—at least, at first.
In June 2019, Tracy Kanary was minding his own business at a Bay City, Michigan recovery house, where he had recently checked in to prove to his family that he was sober.
Kanary’s roommate, Gene Woods, was in a bad mood, apparently thinking that Kanary stole his medication. Woods decided to confront Kanary with his allegations.
When Kanary denied stealing Woods’s “Tums” medication, the argument turned more heated—and Woods decided to become violent. He suddenly rushed Kanary, swinging wildly.
EXCLUSIVE: A man was convicted of murder last year for killing his attacker. Headline USA has obtained the footage of the incident, and is making it public here for the first time. Supporters of the convicted man, Tracy Kanary, say the case is comparable to the Daniel Penny… pic.twitter.com/UpOYT7CrqY
Kanary defended himself by clinching his attacker and taking him down—receiving multiple blows to the back of the head in the process. Woods countered the takedown with a potentially lethal guillotine choke on Kanary.
Again, Kanary defended himself—peeling off Woods’s choke, working out from underneath him, taking his back, and applying a chokehold of his own. Woods tried bucking Kanary off—sending him crashing head-first into a wall—but he continued to apply the hold.
“Matt!” Kanary called to another recovery house resident. “Call 9-1-1!”
The other resident, Matt Navarre, displayed little sense of urgency, walking away to call law enforcement.
That’s when the incident turned deadly, and much more legally complicated.
As seconds passed, and then minutes, help had still not arrived. At certain points, Kanary said Woods began to struggle again, which is why he maintained his hold, he said.
By the time police arrived some six minutes after the fight began, Woods was motionless—later to be pronounced dead.
Kanary was tried twice, the first one ending in a hung jury in December 2022, and the second one ending in a second-degree murder conviction last April.
Kanary maintains to this day that he didn’t intend to kill Woods. When he took the stand in court, he was asked whether he knew Woods had stopped breathing. Kanary said he was breathing so hard himself that he could hardly tell.
“I was breathing so hard myself because I had just got up, just got choked, just got punched, choked, and it was a strenuous thing trying to get out of his chokehold, so I was breathing very hard myself,” Kanary testified.
“I was scared that he was going to get back up again and hurt, and just start swinging and punching me again. So I, you know, I started yelling for help right away.”
Nearly six years and two trials later, Kanary is serving a 22- to 36-year sentence.
His supporters say he never received a fair trial.
For starters, Kanary was initially just charged with manslaughter—but Bay County Prosecuting Attorney Nancy Borushko upgraded the charge to murder in response to political pressure, according to journalist Robert E. Martin.
During his trials, Kanary wasn’t allowed to have a medical doctor testify as an expert witness. According to his supporters, a medical doctor could have testified how the blows to the head he suffered impacted his ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. He was also denied the ability to have a psychologist, who could have explained that when individuals engage in “fight or flight behavior” when in a life-threatening situation.
And despite not having those legal defenses, it still took two trials to convict Kanary.
“The problem with the jury’s verdict and the judge’s reasoning, however, is that the Attacker was a known troublemaker, with a long criminal record including assaults, in and out of jail, with a cocktail of drugs in his system that likely contributed to his aggressive behavior at the time of the attack,” Martin wrote in an article last August.
“A Pharmacologist could’ve analyzed the medicines and toxins found in the attacker’s system, and the prescription pill bottles found at the scene, to determine the effects on behavior and aggression from drugs taken or recently stopping a drug, and how that combination of drugs could contribute to respiratory distress,” Martin wrote.
“But the jury never heard this information, because Tracy was denied professional witnesses, and the judge did not allow some of it. How did this go wrong? Tracy, who was being represented by a public defender at both trials, was told by both that he wasn’t allowed various professional witnesses due to budget approvals or acceptance by the Court,” Martin wrote.
Kanary’s supporters say the matter resembles the case of Daniel Penny—the man acquitted in December for fatally choking a mentally ill person who had been threatening people in a New York City subway. Except unlike Penny, Kanary was attacked first, his supporters argue.
One of the supporters provided Headline USA with footage of the incident. It’s being published here for the first time publicly.
This reporter showed the footage to martial arts experts, including MMA fighters Malachy Friedman and Hamza Mir.
From a technical fighting standpoint, Woods’s punching was “as bad as you can get.” But his grappling skills were potentially lethal, Friedman said. The guillotine choke Woods initially applied on Kanary could have killed him, according to Friedman, who runs Black Label Martial Arts in South Carolina.
As far as why the fight started in the first place, Friedman said both men made mistakes in not trying to deescalate the situation.
“I don’t like how [Kanary] was moving forward in the beginning, but [Woods] was swinging and [Kanary] was then backing up,” he said when reviewing the footage. “I’m sure emotions are super high.”
Friedman said he doesn’t believe Kanary’s actions rose to the level of murder. He said Kanary being punched probably spiked his adrenaline, clouding his judgement in the process.
“[Getting punched] it’s going to drive you up a wall. You’re going to be in panic mode. Your heart is going to be beating like it’s never been beating before,” he said.
Without knowing what was in Kanary’s head at the time, Friedman does say that he believes the incident was likely manslaughter.
“Maybe he didn’t mean to kill him, but I know how long it takes for brain damage: 60 seconds. This is by far a death sentence for [Kanary to hold the choke] that long. But that’s what happens when people are untrained,” he said.
“That’s the danger of choosing a choke … If you use jiu jitsu in a self-defense situation, you have to understand how long a [choke] should be on before you let up.”
Mir, a coach at Arizona Combat Sports, agreed the two should have avoided fighting for numerous reasons.
“Even if you are superior on the ground, the other guy can carry a knife and stab you … Second, if you take the guy down and he picked up something from the ground—like a stone—you are f**ked,” Mir explained.
“Third reason, as demonstrated in this video, the other guy can have superior ground skills than you.”
Kanary still has an outstanding appeal in his case.
Meanwhile, Woods’s family continues to grieve over his needless and tragic killing. Woods had an education in the culinary arts and worked at numerous businesses around Bay City, according to his obituary.
“It changes the very fabric of your being; it changes you at your very core,” Woods’ older sister, Krista Backstrom, wrote last year before Kanary’s sentencing. “It hits you at such a deep emotional level that not a day goes by you don’t think of that person and long to talk to them, see them, communicate with them in some way.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” McMahon said in a statement. “I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”
Affected employees will be placed on administrative leave beginning March 21.
McMahon said the department would “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”
When Trump took office in January, the Department of Education had about 4,133 workers.
After Tuesday’s reduction in force, the department’s workforce will total about 2,183 workers.
Included in the reduction in force are nearly 600 employees who accepted voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement over the last seven weeks, including: 259 employees accepted the deferred resignation program and 313 employees accepted the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment, according to the department.
The Department of Education oversees education policy for schools that receive federal funding, enforces Title IX rules, manages FAFSA, and administers Pell Grants and about 10% of public school funding, among other things.
President Donald Trump has long planned to reduce the department’s workforce and potentially dismantle it entirely, returning control of education entirely to the state and local level.
National Education Association President Becky Pringle, who leads the largest education union, said Trump was destroying education in the U.S.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires,” she said in a statement. “The real victims will be our most vulnerable students. Gutting the Department of Education will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.”
Former President Ronald Reagan wanted to eliminate the Department of Education shortly after it took its modern form as a Cabinet agency in 1980. The department is primarily responsible for providing grants to public school districts and aid to college students.
The Congressional Budget Office’s primer on eliminating Cabinet-level departments said savings from closing any such department would depend on multiple factors.
“Eliminating a department could result in considerable budgetary savings to the federal government if some or all of the programs operated by that department were also terminated,” according to the CBO. “The amount of savings would eventually be equal to the department’s full budget for the canceled programs, minus any income that the department had received through its operation of those programs. Initially, however, the government could incur one-time costs for terminating programs or activities, such as paying the cost of accrued annual leave and unemployment benefits to federal employees whose jobs had been eliminated or paying penalties for canceling leases for office space.”
The CBO also noted that many decisions would have to be made along the way to closure.
“In deciding whether to eliminate one or more of the current departments and whether to terminate, move, or reorganize its programs and activities, lawmakers would confront a variety of questions about the appropriate role of the federal government,” according to the CBO. “In particular, lawmakers would face decisions about whether the activities of a department should be carried out by the public sector at all, and if so, whether the federal government was the most effective level of government to conduct them. Even if lawmakers concluded that state and local governments were best positioned to operate a program or activity, they would still have to decide whether the federal government should coordinate particular activities that crossed state borders and whether programs administered by different states should meet national standards. In addition, lawmakers would face choices about how to organize most efficiently the activities of the federal government.”
The Department of Education was started in 1867, when President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first such department.
(Christen Smith, The Center Square) The Shapiro administration’s handling of a sexual misconduct complaint against a cabinet member, and one reporter’s request to know more about the investigation behind it, may cost taxpayers a lot of money.
In a court transcript obtained by The Center Square, an attorney representing the Office of the Governor says the state deleted internal emails sent and received over an eight-day period by a deputy aide in its Legislative Affairs Office who reported the inappropriate behavior.
“That, frankly, should not be surprising that an account of a departed employee would be disposed of in accordance with the records retention schedules,” says Thomas Howell, the administration’s attorney, during a Feb. 12 hearing in Commonwealth Court. “Those retention schedules are public, and they establish that, you know, your general emails are deleted as soon as they’re no longer necessary.”
Thomas Breth, an attorney for Broad + Liberty, said during the hearing that emails from former employees are kept between three and eight years. The ones in question date back only two years.
The Center Square spoke with one of the attorneys representing the reporter who requested the communications. They said that the “stunning” admission has now generated a request for sanctions against the administration for violating state laws dictating records retention.
The ongoing dispute dates back to late 2023 when the news organization filed a public records request for the emails, along with other internal documents, that were sent between March 2, 2023, and March 10, 2023 – crucially, the last week the aide worked after filing the complaint and resigning.
The complaint alleged Mike Vereb, Shapiro’s former secretary of Legislative Affairs, retaliated against the staffer after reporting his inappropriate comments in February of that same year. Vereb resigned six months later, just weeks before a $295,000 taxpayer-funded settlement became public.
An attorney involved in the proceedings told The Center Square that if sanctions against the administration are imposed, it will have to cover Broad + Liberty’s court fees.
When asked about the issue during a news conference on Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro said he hadn’t read Broad + Liberty’s reporting about it.
“I didn’t read the story and I’m confident my administration follows all document retention policies,” he said.
The governor has long maintained he was unaware of allegations against Vereb, an explanation that’s been met with backlash. The two have a decades-long professional relationship that’s spanned the House of Representatives, the attorney general’s office and the governor’s mansion, raising questions about how much Shapiro knew – and for how long.
One of the most vocal critics, President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, says his explanation is “unimaginable” and “simply not believable.” Her past comments have increased friction with Shapiro as the two struggle to make legislative deals halfway through the governor’s first term.
She added that “any attention” the administration paid to the matter “was protective to cover their office.”
“Shapiro has had every opportunity to step up and do the right thing and he has failed every time. Leadership and culture start at the top,” Ward said. “Shapiro’s excuse that he didn’t know until months after two of his top advisors were named in a sexual harassment complaint by an employee in his own office is simply not believable.”
Handling sexual misconduct complaints vexes government in all states, red and blue alike, according to the National Women’s Defense League, which released an updated report on Tuesday that compiles allegations against public officials.
Since 2013, five former state lawmakers have been accused of sexual misconduct: Democrats Tom Caltagirone, Daylin Leach and Mike Zabel; and Republicans Brian Ellis and Nick Miccarelli. Only two resigned: Zabel and Ellis.
A survey in the report shows that 43% of responding lawmakers think existing policies to prevent sexual misconduct are sufficient. The report also identifies among “notable trends” that politicians transitioning to higher office often escape the ramifications of allegations levied against them – and that “culpability also extends to lawmakers whose high-ranking staff were accused in multiple states.”
(José Niño, Headline USA) Former CIA Director and Jeffrey Epstein associate William Burns is still betting big on American companies.
According to a report published by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, Burns is “firmly invested in America” and has “scant investments (proportionally speaking) in foreign markets.”
Klippenstein obtained a copy of Burns’ official financial disclosure, which he was required to submit in January once he left his post as the nation’s spymaster.
Privately, thanks to the exclusive insider information he is privy to, Burns is bullish on American companies.
Per the Office of Government Ethics disclosure he signed on Jan. 14, 2025, Burns was heavily invested (with investments of over $250,00) in the following mutual fund holdings:
American Funds New World Fund, Inc Class F2 Shares (NFFFX).
T Rowe Price Retirement 2030 Fund (TRRCX).
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund ETF Class Shares (VIG).
Vanguard Small-Cap Value Index Fund ETF Class Shares (VBR) .
T Rowe Price Dividend Growth Fund (PRDGX).
Permanent Portfolio Class I Shares (PRPFX)
However, within Burns’ IRA fund (T Rowe Price Retirement 2030 Fund), international stocks and bonds constitute roughly 29 percent of the total. Burns’ overall foreign investments are quite limited.
Burns portfolio was also heavily invested in prominent blue chip stocks such as:
Apple
Broadcom
Chubb
Costco
Exxon Mobil
GE
JP Morgan Chase
Mastercard
Meta (Facebook)
Microsoft
Nvidia
Palantir
UnitedHealth Group
Visa
Walmart
Burns’ stock disclosure comes at a time when the stock market has experienced significant declines in recent days, largely propelled by concerns over President Trump’s tariff policies and fears of an economic downturn.
During his time as CIA director under the administration of former President Joe Biden, Burns routinely promoted fears about the United States’ perceived vulnerabilities and even suggested that companies like TikTok could be weaponized by the Chinese government.
Outgoing CIA Director Bill Burns bought the dip, financial records showhttps://t.co/Rbh9rSG6lG
Though his investments illustrate a strong degree of confidence in certain sectors of the U.S. economy.
William Burns was the 8th director of the CIA from 2021 to 2025. Prior to becoming the nation’s spymaster, Burns had a lengthy diplomatic career. He previously served as ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001, ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, and U.S. deputy secretary of state from 2011 to 2014.
Documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal show that Burns had several meetings with Jeffrey Epstein in 2014, after Epstein was already a convicted sex offender.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
(José Niño, Headline USA) A House member came to the defense of Rep. Sarah McBride,D-De., the first openly trans-identifying member of Congress, after being called “mister” during a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
🚨New: Rep. Keith Self of TX referred to Rep. Sarah McBride as “Congressman” McBride in a hearing
Dem Rep. Keating lost his mind & stepped in to defend him
Things got heated so Rep. Self adjourned the hearing
During a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Chairman Keith Self, R-Texas, called on McBride to speak.
“I now recognize the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride,” Self said.
McBride responded, “Thank you, Madam chair.”
Before McBride could continue speaking, ranking member Bill Keating, D-Ma., interjected and said, “Mr. Chairman, could you repeat your introduction again, please?”
Keating alluded to an exchange in February in which Rep. Mary Miller, R-Il., who was then presiding over the House chamber, gave the floor to “the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride.”
“We’ve set the standard on the floor of the House and I’m simply —” Self stated.
Keating interrupted and inquired, “What is that standard, Mr. Chairman? Would you repeat what you just said when you introduced a duly-elected representative from the United States of America? Please!”
In response, Self stated, “I will: The representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride.”
Keating subsequently accused Self of being out of order.
“Mr. Chairman, have you no decency? I’ve come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent,” Keating continued.
When Self announced that the hearing would go forward as intended, Keating interrupted again and yelled out, “You will not continue it with me unless you introduce a duly-elected representative the right way.”
After this heated exchange, Self banged a gavel and announced the adjournment of the hearing.
McBride addressed the issue Tuesday night.
No matter how I'm treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress. It is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place.
(Kenneth Schrupp, The Center Square) State Assemblymen Carl Demaio, R-San Diego, and Bill Essayli, R-Corona, launched a ballot measure campaign to mandate voter identification in California elections, citing a new poll finding support for the policy among 68% of likely California voters.
“Politicians and the media will keep denying the fact that California has real problems with election integrity, but the message from the public is loud and clear in support of requiring voter ID as the best way to restore public trust and confidence in our elections,” said DeMaio.
According to polling from Public Opinion Strategies of 800 likely voters in California, 52% of Democrats, 70% of independents and 93% of Republicans support requiring voters to show government-issued identification in order to vote.
“Support for voter ID enjoys broad, bipartisan support in the Golden State and will start in a strong position should it appear on the 2026 ballot in California,” noted the poll.
With state Democratic leadership opposed to voter ID but a majority of likely Democratic voters supporting the policy, the issue highlights a growing rift in the Democratic Party.
When the Republican-led City of Huntington Beach passed a voter ID requirement for local elections, state Democrats passed a statewide ban on voter ID.
California Attorney General Rob Bontafiled suit against the city’s policy, but the case was initially dismissed as constitutional under the state’s charter city provisions, as the ban had not yet come into effect.
After the ban came into effect in January, Bonta urged the judge to reverse his dismissal.
“With preparations for the 2026 elections beginning late this year, time is of the essence,” said Bonta. “The right to vote is sacred, and we will not allow Huntington Beach to disenfranchise Californians at the polls.”
It’s unclear which voters would be disenfranchised by voter identification requirements, as vulnerable individuals must have ID to receive government benefits.
Last week, the judge overturned his dismissal, which will allow for full adjudication on the matter.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has said he would like to make fire relief aid to California contingent upon the state’s adoption of voter ID requirements, which could require further federal action.
