Some leaders of the religious communities in Southern California have written to the top federal prosecutor in the state, calling on him to resign.

Reverends, rabbis, priests and others hand-delivered a three-page letter to the office of the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District, Bilal Essayli, in downtown Los Angeles, asking him to resign.

Rev. Tanya Lopez, who is with Downey Memorial Christian Church, prayed from a podium outside the U.S. Courthouse on Spring Street.

“Calling for Mr. Essayli to resign, to have a change of heart, to have his own resurrection experience of turning back toward what his true purpose is, which is to serve the people, which is to be about the law that protects our democracy,” she said.

“The President won the election and gets to decide who serves in the executive branch, not the party that lost. That’s how democracy works, Father. A federal judge ruled that I’m lawfully serving as the First Assistant. We treat everyone equally. We charge anyone who violates federal law without consideration of race,” responded in part Essayli to the group in a post on X.

Republican National Executive Committee Member Shawn Steel said Essayli is a “gift to all Americans, particularly in the Los Angeles region. He was brought in for a purpose of redesigning the way the U.S. Attorney’s office works to go after violent criminals, go after the kinds of people that make our streets very unsafe.”