Donald Trump’s attempt to assert federal control over mail-in voting sparked a federal lawsuit by a coalition of 23 states and Washington, D.C.
For Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a member of the coalition and a current candidate for governor in that state, the latest lawsuit marks his 64th against the Trump administration’s agenda. Weiser beat Trump twice in court this week alone. An appellate court found Trump’s purported pardon of election denialist Tina Peters didn’t cover her state crimes for tampering with election machines, and a federal court dismissed the Trump Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging Colorado’s sanctuary policies on immigration.
“This administration so clearly and plainly doesn’t care about following the law,” Weiser told All Rise News in an interview on Substack Live. “They believe you can intimidate and get people to bend the knee. They believe you can corrupt our legal institutions, and there are no consequences.”
Last year, Trump filed a similar executive order purporting to dictate how states administer their elections, and three separate courts blocked the gambit. The first line of the states’ complaint alludes to that history.
“The President’s latest attempt to interfere with the States’ administration of their elections is as unprecedented as it is unconstitutional,” the 49-page complaint begins. “Under our Constitution, the President has no authority to restrict voter eligibility or mail voting to lists of voters pre-authorized by the federal government.”
During the interview, Weiser noted that discouraging mail-in voting doesn’t necessarily help Republicans as a political matter and only serves Trump’s “personal grievance” about losing in 2020. But only Democratic AGs joined the lawsuit, a fact that Weiser attributes to GOP prosecutors’ fear of crossing Trump.
“If you’re willing to step up for the integrity of your voting, […] you are likely to face a primary challenge backed by MAGA nation,” Weiser said, citing the case of former Idaho attorney general Lawrence Wasden.
One of a handful of Republican AGs who refused to back Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Wasden lost his next primary in 2022.
In the full interview, Weiser discusses efforts by Trump and his supporters to subvert elections in Colorado and beyond, along with the counteroffensive to prevent that. Watch the full video of the conversation at the top of this newsletter.
