Nick Shirley is continuing his crusade against the California government as a bill fittingly dubbed the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” continues to make its way through the state legislature. While the measure has been pitched as legislation designed to protect the privacy rights of those providing government services, including healthcare and other programs to immigrants, many on the right view it as an anti-First Amendment bill that, in part, criminalizes exposing government waste, fraud, and abuse.
In an interview over the weekend, Shirley questioned why the bill specifically seeks to protect immigrant communities and raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest, noting that the legislator who introduced the measure is married to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. He went on to explain that he, unlike the fraudsters, has nothing to hide, and signaled that he plans to continue tracking down taxpayer money to figure out how it's really spent.
🚨 BREAKING: The Stop Nick Shirley Act is being ADVANCED by California lawmakers — and Nick Shirley just mic dropped the crooks in response 🫳🏻🎤
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 31, 2026
"WHAT do they have to HIDE? Why do they have to create this bill specifically for immigrant communities? Immigration support… pic.twitter.com/kjRl4SHyAM
“What do they have to hide?" Shirley asked. "Why do they have to create this bill specifically for immigrant communities? And what shocks me about it, and [Mia Bonta] didn't say this when she spoke in front of the Assembly, is it also includes health care. So we know, like Medi-Cal, for instance, there could be hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud just in Medi-Cal. And it was proven that there's $250 million in hospice fraud that her husband actually claimed he prosecuted and found. And that would have happened if I didn't make that video on the hospice fraud."
"So Mia Bonta, her husband's the Attorney General, and she's actually creating a bill that would have stopped somebody like me from exposing fraud inside the Armenian community, for instance, and her husband's the Attorney General. Like, there's got to be some weird discussions going on in that house,” he added.
Shirley went on to say that, unlike California Democrats, he has nothing to hide in his fraud investigations, and continues to view backlash to his work, from both politicians and alleged fraudsters themselves, as a signal that he is onto them.
🚨 NICK SHIRLEY JUST NOW: "I don't try to hide anything because I don't have anything TO hide. So when I do go confront a fraudster and they start RUNNING from me, what does that say about the fraudster?"
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 31, 2026
"They're obviously committing a crime or they're committing some sort of… pic.twitter.com/9gqBuVWtT5
This comes as the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” was overwhelmingly passed last week in the state assembly by Democrats, although some Republican legislators also voted in support of the bill. It must now be approved by the state Senate and then signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
It remains unclear whether Shirley plans to continue exposing fraud in the Golden State once the bill is passed.
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