A Los Angeles-based Justice Department official late Friday debunked a baseless claim of a discrepancy in the vote count of the city’s mayoral race that has circulated on social media.

For years, Trump has repeatedly spread falsehoods about "rigged" elections, including in California. Trump’s not alone in his criticism of the pace of California counting ballots, however, he distorted what it means. It’s not a sign of widespread cheating.

President Trump claimed the Democrats are “trying to steal” the California gubernatorial and the Los Angeles mayoral primaries — and launched a probe into the state’s sluggish vote count. Trump fumed Thursday over how votes in California are trickling in two days after polls closed — and the results of the elections may not be known for several weeks due to the vast amount of mail-in ballots that need to be processed.