In the days and weeks that followed California’s primary elections on June 2, Donald Trump responded to results he didn’t like the same way he always does: by peddling a variety of weird conspiracy theories.

In fact, 10 days after Californians finished casting ballots, the president started arguing that the only reason Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton advanced to the general election was that the president applied “heat” by making conspiratorial claims. (The actual reason Hilton advanced was because of vote totals.)

This week, the president elaborated on what happened behind the scenes. At an event in Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon, Trump told attendees:

Steve Hilton, who is running for governor. He was up in front, just about leading. No problem. Then all of a sudden, four, five days after the election is over, they said, ‘Steve Hilton is starting to lose votes.’ I said, ‘Here we go again.’ I called up the very powerful, very good U.S. attorney in California and I said, “Do me a favor. Take a look. They are trying to steal that election.”

The electoral dynamic the president described was plainly untrue, and there was literally no evidence of anyone trying to “steal” anything.

A day later, Trump nevertheless echoed the claim at an unrelated White House event, saying, “I asked the U.S. attorney [in California] to go look at their votes.”

He didn’t specify which of the Golden State’s four U.S. attorneys he contacted, though Bill Essayli, the controversial first assistant U.S. attorney who’s leading the office in the Central District of California, two weeks ago appeared on Glenn Beck’s program, where he vowed to bring criminal charges in “one to two months” related to his party’s conspiracy theories regarding California elections.

The Republican prosecutor also suggested that he hasn’t yet collected real evidence, though he hoped the public might help him find some.

To be sure, the details are of interest, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees. According to the sitting American president, he personally contacted a federal prosecutor and directed him to pursue election conspiracy theories for which there is no evidence.

After delivering the instructions, one U.S. attorney did, in fact, start examining the matter.

This is a rather extraordinary admission — and in a healthier political environment, it would be seen as a genuine scandal. It’s one thing for the White House’s Democratic critics to argue that federal law enforcement is under the thumb of the president, who’s effectively calling the shots at the Justice Department he controls. It’s something else when Trump more or less admits — out loud, in public, on more than one occasion — that his critics are correct.

“Trump just admitted it,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom noted via social media. “The President of the United States is personally directing federal prosecutors to start investigations into his political opponents when his preferred candidate may lose the election.”

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