California’s attorney general on Saturday rebuked the Trump administration’s efforts to quash alleged noncitizen voting, calling it “politicizing and weaponizing the law”.

Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general, said the justice department acted at Donald Trump’s direction.

“It is once again the United States Department of Justice politicizing and weaponizing the law to attack its enemies, and it is completely improper,” he told MS Now.

Less than two weeks before the midterms, federal prosecutors called upon California election officials to verify within 48 hours a list of about 20,000 ballots belonging to suspected noncitizens. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare , but in the run-up to the midterm elections, the justice department has ramped up prosecutions of people accused of illegally voting while not holding US citizenship.

California’s election personnel have raised concern that the administration’s directive could disenfranchise citizens.…