The CEO of a Gavin Newsom nonprofit that received hundreds of millions in taxpayer money was pulling down $432,000 a year.
Now O'Keefe's cameras just caught that same organization committing what federal prosecutors are calling a felony.
What one of their employees said on hidden camera to protect themselves is something Pam Bondi's DOJ will not be able to ignore.
What O'Keefe's Cameras Captured on Skid Row
James O'Keefe and his team went undercover on Los Angeles' Skid Row posing as homeless individuals – and what they documented in 28 separate instances is a federal crime playing out in broad daylight.
Petition circulators were openly paying $7 to $10 per signature, bragging about earning up to $1,000 a day.
They were handing out cigarettes and marijuana along with the cash.
They were coaching people with no ID, no fixed address, and no understanding of what they were signing to simply invent addresses.
"You can just put Pinocchio Lane," one petitioner told an undercover journalist.
But the signature collectors weren't even the worst part.
The Weingart Center – a taxpayer-backed nonprofit that received hundreds of millions in public funding to house and serve the homeless – was caught on tape doing something far more damning.
Weingart intake coordinator Jason Warren directed undercover journalists straight to the fraudulent petitioners, telling them exactly where and when to find them: "Most time they be right across the street, under that tree – Monday through Friday."
Then a Weingart employee coached participants on how to avoid criminal liability.
"See they say ignorance is no excuse for the law," the employee said on camera. "But a lot of times, I have to say 'I didn't know, I had no idea.'"
That's not a slip of the tongue. That's a taxpayer-funded employee teaching plausible deniability to participants in a federal election crime.
The Federal Law These People Broke
Under federal law – specifically 52 U.S.C. § 10307(c) – providing false information on a voter registration form or offering payment to complete a voter registration form is a federal felony.
Every single one of those 28 transactions O'Keefe documented is a potential federal charge.
Bill Essayli, Pam Bondi's top prosecutor in Los Angeles, came out swinging within hours of the tape dropping.
"While longstanding DOJ policy prevents me from discussing specific investigations," Essayli said, "I want to assure the public that this DOJ, under the leadership of AG Pam Bondi, will aggressively pursue anyone and everyone involved in violating federal election laws."
Every Democrat official in California – Karen Bass, LA DA Nathan Hochman, the Secretary of State's office, and even Newsom's own spokesperson – confirmed they knew about the sting and called it a felony.
Newsom Built the System That Made This Possible
In 2016, Sacramento rewrote the law to allow literally anyone – not a family member, not a caregiver, anyone – to collect and deliver another voter's mail-in ballot.
The Heritage Foundation called it immediately: an open invitation to fraud, coercion, and outright ballot theft.
They were right.
Political consulting firm Populus Inc. was circulating petitions on Skid Row funded by Uber, Delta, United Airlines, and the American Hotel & Lodging Association – using the city's most vulnerable residents as paid signature machines.
The Weingart Center CEO pulled down $432,000 before resigning from the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency.
Hundreds of millions in public money flowed in. Nobody asked what was happening outside.
Newsom's California didn't stumble into this. It was constructed piece by piece – loose ballot laws, billion-dollar NGO networks, and zero accountability for what happened at street level.
https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/2033986614599569554“>https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/2033986614599569554
What Happens Now
Newsom's spokesperson called this a felony and demanded prosecution. Bass and Hochman said the same.
They said it because O'Keefe was watching and they had no choice.
The real test is whether any of them push for actual charges – or whether this gets buried the same way every other California election scandal gets buried.
What they can't bury is the tape.
Twenty-eight instances. Cash. Drugs. Fake addresses. A taxpayer-funded NGO directing the traffic and teaching the cover story.
Gavin Newsom built a state where that was possible – and James O'Keefe put every second of it on camera.
Sources:
- Cristina Laila, "BREAKING: O'Keefe Media Group Releases Undercover Video Exposing a California Elections Fraud Cash for Ballots Scheme," The Gateway Pundit, March 17, 2026.
- O'Keefe Media Group, "California Elections Fraud Cash for Ballots Part I," OMG Video Release, March 17, 2026.
- Hans von Spakovsky, "Vote Harvesting a Recipe for Coercion and Election Fraud," The Heritage Foundation.
- Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli), Statement on federal election law, X (Twitter), March 17, 2026.
