Judge orders Trump administration to stop threatening US election officials

A federal judge has ordered the federal government to stop threatening local and state election officials with criminal charges over their role in processing election ballots. The California judge ruled that the Department of Justice (DoJ) must stop demanding that local and state election officials set aside or not process certain ballots that the Trump administration alleges may come from non-citizens.The ruling comes days before the midterm elections, which will determine which political party controls the US Congress for the last two years of Donald Trump's presidency. Trump criticised the ruling on Saturday, writing,"Why would they reject fixing Election Fraud?"In California earlier this month, the justice department sent letters to the secretary of state and Los Angeles County Registrar demanding they set aside the ballots of 20,000 registered voters whom the Trump administration "believe" are "likely" non-citizens, according to court documents. About a week later, armed officials from the Department of Homeland Security delivered letters to county officials and employees across California threatening criminal charges if they didn't sequester those ballots. But the groups said...