Riverside County will not pay legal fees for Sheriff Chad Bianco’s investigation into alleged voter fraud.
In a 4-1 vote Tuesday, April 14, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors declined to hire or pay outside counsel to defend the sheriff in four lawsuits related to his investigation.
It is unclear how the board’s decision will impact the sheriff’s investigation. The California Supreme Court ordered Bianco to pause his investigation last week in response to a lawsuit brought by the California Attorney General’s Office.
The AG’s office had also sued the sheriff in Riverside County Superior Court and the state Court of Appeal.
All three lawsuits were discussed by the board in closed session, in addition to a similar lawsuit brought against Bianco by clients of the UCLA Voting Rights Project.
“Sheriff Bianco chose to hire his own private lawyers without any indication that he followed the process required by California Law,” Sonni Waknin, senior voting rights counsel at the VRP, said prior to Tuesday’s meeting.
Several other people spoke during public comment urging supervisors to decline to pay Bianco’s legal fees.
Typically, the Riverside County Counsel would cover the defense of the sheriff’s office, but Bianco apparently hired private attorney Robert Tyler to advise him on this investigation.
The San Bernardino Sun reported Tyler wrote in court documents the sheriff had initially sought to use the county’s in-house lawyers, the county counsel’s office, but had been advised to find an outside attorney because he was investigating the Registrar of Voters, a county department also represented by the county counsel.
The vote occurred in closed session, and the result was made public afterward, as required by state law. County Counsel Minh Tran did not saywhich of the supervisors voted in favor or against paying the sheriff’s legal fees. Due to state law, government discussions of ongoing litigation are not required to be fully transparent.
The entire conversation regarding the four lawsuits against the sheriff took place behind closed doors and the supervisors did not describe their reasoning or their votes following County Counsel’s report.
After the vote, Waknin said: “We are pleased to see that the concerns of our plaintiffs were heeded by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors in their declining to pay the attorney fees and expenses to defend Sheriff Bianco’s election-related conduct. Sheriff Bianco’s seizure of election materials continues to be unlawful.”
Reached Tuesday, a Riverside County spokesperson said she did not immediately have more information on the issue. Bianco did not immediately respond to a request for comment left through a spokesperson.
What is the sheriff’s investigation?
Sheriff deputies seized over 650,000 Riverside County ballots as part of an investigation into alleged fraud during the 2025 Proposition 50 election.
A local group calling itself the Riverside Election Integrity Team was the first to raise concern over misconduct during the election. The group claims to have identified a discrepancy of 45,896 votes between the final tally and handwritten records of hand-counted ballots.
The claim has been denied by Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco, who said handwritten ballot records are estimates and not intended to be final counts.
Bianco himself has said he does not believe fraud had taken place during the election, but he says the machines used to count ballots may be flawed. That claim has also been disputed by state officials.
The investigation has been on hold following the supreme court’s decision.
Bianco, who is running for governor as a Republican, has called the lawsuits against him politically motivated. He has previously declined to comment on what he plans to do next.
Sam Morgen covers the city of Palm Springs for The Desert Sun. Reach him at smorgen@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Riverside County declines to pay Bianco’s legal fees in election probe
Reporting by Sam Morgen, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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