California Controller Malia Cohen threatens GOP rival over cheeky website

California Controller Malia Cohen is tasked with safeguarding the state’s money — but her $1 million reelection campaign forgot to protect one thing: her own name.

The Democratic fiscal watchdog’s campaign is now threatening legal action against Republican challenger Herb Morgan over MaliaCohen.org, a slick attack website that catalogs criticism of Cohen’s record.

On Wednesday, an attorney for Cohen’s campaign sent Morgan a cease-and-desist letter, which was obtained by The California Post.

The letter accuses Morgan of “political cyberfraud,” demanding he remove the website’s content, surrender the domain and confirm compliance within 24 hours. The election comes to an end Tuesday.

“How dumb do you have to be to be a major party political candidate and not secure MaliaCohen.org?” Morgan told The California Post. “It was available. We purchased it.”

Morgan, an investment expert and entrepreneur, said he welcomes the fight.

“If she thinks she can intimidate me. I mean, come on!” he said. “I’ve been around way too long.”

Cohen’s campaign has brought in more than $1 million this year, according to state campaign finance records. But the battle over her online namesake has given her opponent another opening to question her attention to detail.

The website resembles a polished campaign production — complete with prominent photographs, biographical information and sections examining her record — except it viciously rips Cohen’s time as controller.

The site notes Cohen’s failure to conduct homelessness audits despite her campaign promises. It also spotlights a lawsuit alleging her office and contractors improperly took and sold foreign investors’ stock.

The website also notes recent state auditor findings that Cohen‘s office delayed recovering more than $33,000 in employee salary overpayments and let multiple staff members work out of state.

Morgan also seized on an undercover video released in April by James O’Keefe’s media company, in which Cohen’s spokesman and acting deputy controller for public affairs, Bismarck Obando, said fraud was “everywhere” and described staffing shortages limiting proactive audits.

Obando said the office had completed some required audits but needed more staff to expand its scrutiny. 

Cohen did not respond to The Post’s request for comment on the website.

Morgan maintains the site is protected political speech.

“All we did was take publicly available information, actual reported news stories about her — about her incompetence, about her ineptitude — and republish those stories, put them in one easy to find place to help the voters out,” he said.

The website also takes aim at Cohen’s homelessness oversight, contrasting her 2022 campaign promises with an October report that her office had completed no homelessness audits. It also includes her explanation that funding for broader audit work was denied.

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Morgan dismissed the legal threats, which noted California Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act, as “a very, very flimsy cease and desist letter,” saying decades in business had prepared him for encounters with lawyers.

“We’re not going to respond, of course,” he said. “We know we’re well within our First Amendment constitutional rights.”