President Donald Trump admitted Friday that he personally ordered a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of the results of Alaska’s upcoming Senate election.
“I’m the one that said do it,” Trump, 80, said when asked about the Department of Justice’s lawsuit filed on Thursday.
He argued that voters in the Alaska Senate race might be confused because two candidates on the ballot share the same first and last names: Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and challenger Dan J. Sullivan.
Despite losing earlier challenges to keeping Dan J. Sullivan off the ballot, the Republican Party hasn’t given up its efforts to challenge his candidacy.
The Alaska Senate race is one of a handful across the country that could determine which party controls the Senate.
Democratic candidate Mary Peltola, a former U.S. representative, has been outperforming Sullivan on the campaign trail. She also has a thin lead over the incumbent in some polls.
Sullivan has held the seat since defeating a Democratic incumbent in 2014. But Trump’s low approval ratings, the cost-of-living crisis, and the war in Iran have emerged as major issues ahead of November’s midterms.
The White House referred the Daily Beast to the Department of Justice. The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Justice filed the lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block certification of the Senate election results over the inclusion of Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot.
University of Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller said the legal argument put forward by the DOJ was “one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen.”
The suit, which relies on the National Voter Registration Act’s preamble, misinterprets the law, Muller argued.
“For instance, it claims that certifying the result ‘would violate Defendants’ duties under the NVRA to ‘protect the integrity of the electoral process.’ That is certainly not what the NVRA does,” Muller wrote.
“Some, in a panic, might react that the Department is trying to deny certification of an election in a state. Of course that’s what the Department is trying to do. But the legal claim is so absurdly thin, there’s essentially no likelihood of success.”
