If you wondered just how far Democrats would go to protect their multi-billion dollar scheme to enrich allies and treasured voting blocs, this should clear it up.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom — currently under federal criminal investigation, having hidden his tax returns behind a no-cameras viewing room, presiding over $1 billion in Medicaid payments withheld by HHS due to what the department called “mind-blowingly extensive fraud” — just signed a law that critics say is designed to criminalize the investigative journalism exposing exactly that corruption. It is called, with no apparent self-awareness, the Stop Nick Shirley Act.
Nick Shirley is an independent journalist and YouTuber who has been documenting California election fraud, Medicaid fraud, and immigration violations on camera — knocking on doors of registered voters who turn out to be 126 years old, filming homeless industrial complex fraud where California bought a hotel for $8 million and is now spending $20 million to fix it at $625,000 per homeless person, and exposing how easily California’s honor system elections can be gamed.
California Democrats advanced Assembly Bill 2624 specifically in response to his work. The bill expands California’s Safe at Home program — an address confidentiality program — to employees of nonprofits serving immigrants. The practical effect critics and Republican legislators identified: shielding the immigrant advocacy nonprofits and their workers that Shirley has been investigating from exactly the kind of on-camera journalism he’s been doing.
The main sponsor is Assemblywoman Mia Bonta — the wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is also under federal scrutiny and whose job it is to investigate (wait for it) fraud in the state. The state official criminalizing journalism about immigration fraud is married to the attorney general of the state where immigration fraud is being documented. You can’t make this up.
The law faces obvious First Amendment challenges that will almost certainly land at the Supreme Court. But the challenge process takes time — and while it’s pending, California Democrats get to operate with the chilling effect of a law that threatens reporters documenting their corruption with criminal liability.
California is simultaneously a sanctuary state for illegal alien criminals, provides illegal aliens with taxpayer-funded health benefits, has had $1 billion in Medicaid payments deferred by HHS during an active fraud review, and is under active federal investigation for election system irregularities. The investigative journalist most visibly exposing all of it just got a state law named after him — designed to stop him.
When they named it the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” they weren’t being clever. They were being honest about their intentions in a way they rarely manage. The legislation exists to stop Shirley. He exists to stop the fraud. The voters of California will eventually have to decide which one they want.
The crude harassment campaign targeting Shirley — a California Assembly chief of staff distributed messages mocking his genitals — makes clear how personally Democrats feel about his camera.
pjmedia
This is disqualifying if you're running for any elected office in America, let alone the presidency. https://t.co/rBErOiSGHN
— USA Features Media (@USAFeatures) August 23, 2026
The camera keeps rolling. The law will face the courts. First Amendment versus a state government that literally named a law after the journalist it wants silenced. America is watching. And if you’re Gavin Newsom wanting to be president of the United States, signing this monstrosity into law is disqualifying. Shame on him for protecting fraudsters.
