Trump Says He Asked Us Attorney For California Election Probe: ‘do Me A Favor’

President Donald Trump acknowledged having called federal prosecutors in California to probe the state’s primary election results, claiming without evidence on Tuesday that his intervention resulted in Republican Steve Hilton advancing to the runoff in the gubernatorial race.

His remarks, at a rally in Pennsylvania, came weeks after California primary results first cemented Democrat Xavier Becerra as the front-runner advancing to the November ballot, with results for the Trump-endorsed Hilton arriving days later.

“I called up the very powerful, very good U.S. attorney in California. I said, ‘Do me a favor. Take a look,’” the president said.

Trump took credit for Hilton’s victory, claiming the former Fox News host only advanced after the attorney made a call to an unspecified person.

“About an hour after the call, ladies and gentleman, Mr. Hilton has won,” Trump said. “Had I not made that call, Steve Hilton would be watching the election from home.”

It wasn’t immediately clear which attorney Trump was referring to. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli — the top official in the Los Angeles-based Central District of California —announced an investigation into election fraud claims earlier this month.

The president’s baseless claims of “rigged” elections in California’s gubernatorial race came moments after he made similar comments about the Los Angeles mayoral race, in which he said the state “screw[ed]” Republican Spencer Pratt, who fell short of the November runoff in the heavily Democratic city earlier this month.

Hilton has repeatedly said that he has not seen evidence of fraud in the election, and pointed to Essayli as a check on potential wrongdoing as he moves to convince Republican voters that it is worth casting ballots. In one recent interview, he told CNN that his campaign had teams and lawyers “standing by,” but dispelled conspiracies around the state’s election integrity.

“We've seen nothing that would give us cause to intervene in that way,” Hilton said in the interview. He went on to note that Essayli was “there, and he’s taking a look at it, and I trust that if there is anything that needs to be investigated, that he will make sure it happens.”

Neither Essayli nor a spokesperson for Hilton immediately returned requests for comment.