This week, the answer came into focus. MS NOW reported:

Los Angeles Council member Nithya Raman will advance to the November general election in the mayoral race to face the incumbent, Karen Bass, after overtaking ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the primary, The Associated Press projects.

Raman has steadily trended upward in the vote count since Election Day, and she overtook Pratt on Sunday. Monday’s vote update gives Raman a cushion of more than 20,000 votes, making her position in the top two safe, with an estimated 93% of the vote counted.

.....In recent days, a great many GOP leaders, including Donald Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill, have invested an enormous amount of time and energy trying to convince the public the state’s elections process is “rigged” by nefarious Democratic schemers who’ve secretly orchestrated the results to ensure their preferred outcome.

When pressed for evidence, GOP officials tend to embarrass themselves, but that’s not the only — or even the central — problem. On the contrary, the Republican conspiracy theory suffers from an obvious fatal flaw: If nefarious Democratic schemers existed and were secretly orchestrating the results, they wouldn’t have picked these outcomes.

In Los Angeles’ mayoral race, it’s no secret that the Democratic incumbent, running in a city with an enormous progressive voter base, welcomed the opportunity to run against a conservative television personality with an embarrassingly thin professional resume. Instead, Bass will face Raman, a Harvard- and MIT-educated City Council member who’s already demonstrated an ability to win local elections.

If powerful Democratic operatives were pulling the strings from the shadows, they would’ve gladly pitted Bass against Pratt, if only to watch him lose in November.

Similarly, Democrats would’ve loved to see two Democratic candidates emerge from the state’s gubernatorial primary, thus ensuring party control. Instead, it appears increasingly likely that a GOP candidate backed by the Republican president will advance to the general election — which, again, is not the outcome these ostensible powerful Democratic operatives pulling the strings from the shadows would’ve deliberately orchestrated.

A federal judge ruled that he had illegally served as the acting US Attorney. Essayli was disqualified from holding the position because he stayed on beyond the initial interim period without having received official congressional approval, and was immediately reassigned to the First Assistant United States Attorney role.

In April 2025, United States Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Essayli as interim United States Attorney for the Central District of California....

His appointment prompted pushback ... culminating in the launch of Stop Essayli, a grassroots effort opposing his confirmation on grounds of alleged political retaliation and civil rights concerns.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Essayli struggled to secure convictions at grand juries for charges he brought against protestors during the June 2025 Los Angeles protests. By July 23, federal prosecutors brought 38 felony cases against protestors but secured only seven indictments, with many being dismissed or reduced to misdemeanor charges. Three federal law enforcement officers reported to the Times that they overheard a speakerphone conversation in the vicinity of the grand jury room in which Essayli screamed at a prosecutor to ignore the Department of Justice's Justice Manual and instead to secure indictments as directed by Pam Bondi. The report said Essayli's low number of indictments raised concerns among legal experts over the strength of the cases he was filing.

On January 24, 2026, in response to the killing of Alex Pretti, Essayli posted on Twitter: "If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don't do it!" The gun-rights organizations National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America both criticized the comments. The National Rifle Association called these comments "dangerous and wrong" and called for a full investigation. Gun Owners of America responded by stating: "We condemn the untoward comments of U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. Federal agents are not 'highly likely' to be 'legally justified' in 'shooting' concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm. The Second Amendment protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon."