Trump picks lightning-rod California legislator to be US attorney in Los Angeles

SACRAMENTO, California — President Donald Trump has chosen a California Republican state lawmaker who helped prosecute the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attacks and elevated his profile antagonizing Democrats in the state Legislature to be the next U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Assemblymember Bill Essayli will resign from the Legislature on Tuesday night and begin the new role on Wednesday, according to two people with direct knowledge of his plans who were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

His nomination, previously unreported, demonstrates how Trump’s return to office has heightened the relevance of California Republicans who are frequently sidelined in the Democratic-supermajority state.

Essayli will oversee federal law enforcement in the Central District of California — the nation’s most populous federal court jurisdiction, which encompasses large swaths of Southern California and nearly 20 million residents. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the office earlier in his career.

Representatives for Essayli and the White House didn't respond to requests for comment.

Essayli has since 2022 represented a conservative pocket of inland Southern California in the statehouse. There, he focused heavily on gender issues, traveling to local school board meetings to advocate for policies requiring school staff to alert parents if a student showed signs of being transgender. He also carried unsuccessful legislation that would have made such “parental notification” mandatory statewide.

He presented a bill Tuesday that would ban transgender athletes' participation in girls’ and women’s sports, an issue that was given oxygen in Sacramento when Gov. Gavin Newsom broke with fellow Democrats on the issue last month.

Essayli focused his testimony on the legal side of the issue, echoing a Trump administration interpretation of Title IX which argues the civil rights law already precludes trans girls from participating on school sports teams matching their gender identity.

California’s allowance of trans sports participation is “not just bad policy, it’s also a flagrant violation of Title IX and puts California schools at risk of losing billions in federal funding,” Essayli said during a committee hearing Tuesday. “I believe California will come into compliance with Title IX, either through this legislative process or the court process.”

The son of Lebanese immigrants, Essayli became the first Muslim member of his chamber when he was elected in 2022.

He frequently angered ruling Democrats and even frustrated some moderates within his own caucus with his pugnacious approach. One especially memorable episode came on the last night of last year’s legislative session, when legislative Democrats had run out of time to hear all the bills on their docket and declined to call on him to speak as they rushed through their agenda.

“I have the Goddamn right to speak,” he yelled while banging on his desk minutes before midnight.

The Democrat overseeing the proceedings told Essayli he was out of order.

“You are a fucking liar,” Essayli yelled back twice, before walking off the Assembly floor.

Essayli found unique ways to agitate the opposing party, recently joining forces with advocates of a slavery reparations proposal that Democrats held during that same final day of the legislative session. And he developed powerful alliances, recently working with Trump’s Special Envoy Richard Grenell and Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio to qualify a statewide voter ID requirement for the ballot in 2026.

Trump has also nominated California attorney Harmeet Dhillon to lead his Department of Justice’s civil rights division.

Essayli will replace acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally, who filled the post earlier this year after Biden-appointed Martin Estrada left for private practice just before Trump’s inauguration.

The position requires Senate confirmation. Confirmation for most U.S. attorney jobs is typically routine, though California Sen. Adam Schiff has promised to hold up the confirmation of D.C.-based acting Attorney Ed Martin.