US Attorney calls out 'loud-mouth' California Dems as feds step in with Skid Row drug bust: 'They're lunatics'

First Assistant U.S.Attorney Bill Essayli called out California Democrats for watering down the state's criminal law after federal law enforcement led the charge on a massive drug crackdown in the infamous Skid Row neighborhood on Thursday.Essayli told Fox News Digital in an interview that California's state and local law enforcement have worked with feds just fine, but that it's the politicians who are getting in the way."Unfortunately, states like California have totally watered down their laws, their criminal justice laws. They've also emptied their prisons and closed prisons, so effectively, there's not much of a deterrence on the state side.

No one faces any serious consequences on the state side," Essayli said.NEWSOM BLASTED BY SHERIFF IN HIS OWN BACKYARD OVER CALIFORNIA CRIME AS VICTIMS CRY FOULFirst Assistant U.S.Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli answers questions during a news conference outside the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department in Rancho Cucamonga on Friday, April 10, 2026.

(Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)"We work really well with our local law enforcement partners," he continued."Local law enforcement isn't the problem.

It's more the governor, it's the legislature, it's these loud-mouth federal, you know, Congress members who all they care about is attacking the administration, attacking the president."Essayli did give credit to Mayor Karen Bass for approving the Los Angeles Police Department to participate in Thursday's Operation Save Skid Row.KAREN BASS GRILLED OVER BROKEN HOMELESSNESS PROMISE, BLAMES BUREAUCRACY FOR SLOWED PROGRESS"This is a climate in which you have people right now trying to defund the police.You have people trying to disarm the LAPD, and those people are on the side of criminals," he added.

"Anyone who's calling for disarming the police is on the side of the drug dealers that we arrested today, they're lunatics."Law enforcement officers look at encampments that had been ...