Ex-DOJ lawyer torches Blanche as 'dead wrong' on everything in new suit

President Donald Trump's Justice Department is "simply dead wrong" on every count in their new election meddling lawsuit, according to CNN analyst Elie Honig, who argued that the law it has hinged its case on "has nothing to do with" the situation it is trying to apply it to.

The DOJ last week filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to potentially block the certification of Alaska's Senate race if incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan loses by a small enough margin. The agency alleged that too much confusion was being created by the presence of another third-party candidate also named Dan Sullivan on the ballot, despite the fact that the state's Supreme Court allowed the situation to play out months ago.

Critics alleged that the suit's true purpose is to potentially block a win by Democratic nominee Mary Peltola, whom polling shows has a strong chance of flipping the traditionally red state's Senate seat. Other observers have noted that Sen. Sullivan is clearly listed as "incumbent" on the state's ballots, eliminating the possible confusion. The issue of two Dan Sullivans was previously brought to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that there was no issue.

During a Monday morning appearance on CNN, Honig, one of the network's top legal analysts, was unsparing in his take on why the DOJ's argument in this case does not hold water in the slightest.

"Todd Blanche, Elie, made the case that federal law essentially required them to make a move here, and said that they’d be doing it even if it was two Democrats on the ballot in this scenario. What do you make of this?" host Kate Bolduan wrote.

"Well, the attorney general is just simply dead wrong on both the law and the Constitution," Honig responded. "The U.S. Constitution tells us that election procedures are up to the states in the first instance, or Congress if Congress passes legislation. Now, if we look at the scenario here, this dispute went all the way up through the Alaska courts, all the way to the Alaska State Supreme Court, which held that there need to be some differentiators between the two Dan Sullivans, marking one as the senator, the incumbent, the Republican, and the other with none of those things, but the ballot can proceed as planned. So that’s what the state of Alaska has said about how it wants to run its election."

He added further: "Now, Blanche is saying, 'Oh, but there’s a federal law that was passed that allows us to get involved.' However, if you look at DOJ’s brief, the federal law they cite has nothing to do with this scenario. It’s a federal law that has to do with outlawing poll taxes and literacy tests and telling us what election monitors can and cannot do. It has nothing to do with ballot design or potential confusion. And the language Blanche uses in his brief is from the preamble to that law. That’s sort of the gauzy introductory language, which has no legal relevance. So his whole argument is based on language that has no legal relevance from a law that has no application here. Despite the vitriol that we saw coming from Todd Blanche during that interview, he’s just wrong."