SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The U.S. Justice Department has been busy recently filing cases, investigating President Trump's perceived enemies, and filing election-related lawsuits against certain states, as the midterm elections approach. NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us. Ryan, thanks so much for being with us.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Thanks for having me, Scott.
SIMON: Has the pace been picking up at DOJ?
LUCAS: Well, look, we have certainly seen a flurry of politically charged cases and investigations by the Justice Department over the past month. There was the search by federal agents at the home of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who's one of Trump's fiercest critics in Congress. That search was part of an investigation into possible immigration fraud. We've also seen two former FBI officials charged in connection with the investigations into former President Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
And James Comey, the former FBI director, also was charged this month for allegedly leaking sensitive information 10 years ago. That is the third criminal case against Comey in little over a year, if you're keeping track. And last but not least, prosecutors tried and failed just this week to secure a grand jury indictment against a former Trump White House aide who had provided damning testimony to House lawmakers about the January 6 Capitol riot.
SIMON: A long list of prominent names of people who've been critical of the president. How unusual is it to see the Justice Department do this so close to an election?
LUCAS: It's not normal at all, Scott. In fact, the department has a long-standing practice that has been observed by both Republican and Democratic administrations over the years that the department does not take overt investigative actions in the two months or so before an election, and it doesn't do that so that it avoids even the possibility of being seen as interfering or influencing an election.
There's, in fact, even a section in the Justice Department's internal rulebook, so to speak, that says prosecutors and agents can never do anything with the purpose of affecting an election. And critics, including legal experts, department veterans, say the department's recent actions are clear violations. Attorney General Todd Blanche has pushed back on that. Here's what he said when asked about it earlier this month.
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TODD BLANCHE: When we have to execute a search warrant or an arrest, if there's a crime that occurs, we take into consideration the purpose and making sure the purpose is proper, which is what the Justice Manual requires, and that's what we did then, and that's what we do in every case.
SIMON: Ryan, please tell us about the lawsuits the Justice Department filed in California and Alaska over the elections.
LUCAS: Right. So in the California lawsuit, the Justice Department wants the state to set aside any vote by mail ballots associated with a list of 20,000 names that the DOJ says are likely noncitizens until the voters' citizenship has been verified. This week, a federal judge and an appeals court rejected that request, but the Justice Department hasn't backed down in the broader fight over the state's voter rolls because, on Thursday, it sent out grand jury subpoenas to California election officials, and that is seen as a significant escalation on the Justice Department's part.
SIMON: And Alaska?
LUCAS: Yeah. That's been a wild ride. So this is a lawsuit that President Trump has said he told the Justice Department to file. The department wants the court to delay certification in the U.S. Senate race in Alaska if the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, loses by a small margin. That's because there's another Dan Sullivan on the ballot, and the argument is that having two people with the same name could confuse voters. The state's Supreme Court already ruled that both Sullivans could run.
Things seemed to have settled down until a New York Times report this week that said Democrats recruited the second Dan Sullivan to run specifically to siphon votes away from the Republican. The Justice Department revised its lawsuit to include those allegations. Alaska's governor has ordered an investigation. The Justice Department already has a criminal investigation underway, so there's certainly going to be more to come on that front.
SIMON: NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas, thanks so much.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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