Trump Flexes Legal Muscle to Expand Power Over US Elections

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump is pursuing extraordinary legal tactics to assert greater federal control over US elections, testing the boundaries of Washington's power over how Americans vote as his Republican Party seeks to keep its majority in Congress this fall.

While the US Constitution largely puts states in charge of elections, Trump has sought to reach into virtually every corner of the voting process as he boosts baseless accusations of widespread fraud that critics warn is eroding public trust. The president has empowered the nation's top law enforcement agency, the Justice Department, to pressure states to align with the administration's agenda — including threatening to prosecute local officials — and pursue Republican redistricting goals in court.

The result is a collision between executive power and the states' traditional authority, with the courts increasingly becoming the battleground. A prime example is Trump's push to curb mail-in voting, which is used by tens of millions of Americans including the president. The Justice Department repeatedly turned to the Supreme Court to intervene as lower courts blocked the administration from rushing to implement new mail-in ballot restrictions at Trump's direction in the Nov. 3 midterms.

Even after the Supreme Court last week rebuffed the administration's push to quickly implement new Postal Service restrictions on mail-in ballots, Attorney General Todd Blanche said they will comply, but vowed to press ahead on the broader strategy, telling reporters that the loss "doesn't mean that we're not going to do everything in this administration that we can to make sure that there are free and fair elections."

Enforcing US laws in elections has historically been part of the department's mission, but more often focused on addressing racial discrimination, language and disability access at polls and other barriers to voting. Critics and boosters agree the agency under Trump has been more aggressive than recent past administrations — though they diverge on whether that's good or bad.

Some are ringing alarm bells as Republicans defend their tight majorities in Congress in November and begin to lay the groundwork for the 2028 presidential contest. This week, a federal judge in Washington refused to let the Justice Department delay responding to a Democratic National Committee lawsuit seeking any internal records about plans for ballot seizures, after the party organization argued there was a "very real threat" of such a move in the midterms.