A veteran Trump adversary heading into federal court to fight the administration's latest election push thinks he knows what's really rattling the president.
Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Fund and a former House Judiciary Committee special counsel during Trump's first impeachment, wrote in The Contrarian on Saturday that record early turnout may explain what he called the Justice Department's election "freakout" in courts.
"What is causing this freakout in the courts? Perhaps it's early-voting numbers," Eisen asked.
By Saturday morning, he noted, more than 25 million Americans had already cast ballots, breaking records nationwide. Early voting in Texas is running 74 percent ahead of 2022, while Kansas has more than doubled its pace, and Eisen said figures from key states point to strong Democratic enthusiasm.
Eisen, who is heading to federal court in California next week, is helping fight a DOJ lawsuit filed after the state refused a demand that Los Angeles County set aside the ballots of more than 20,000 people while voting was underway. He blasted the government's evidence as a "demonstrably junky list," noting the county tested a sample and found it unreliable.
His group, working with the Campaign Legal Center, has intervened on behalf of LULAC and the NAACP. Eisen argued the government waited too long, writing that "the law does not allow you to sit on these issues and then come swooping in weeks before an election."
He also took aim at the DOJ's charges against 28 California residents, saying the charges appear to have swept in innocent voters and were timed to intimidate.
Eisen saved his harshest words for a new administration lawsuit in Alaska, where GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan shares the ballot with another candidate named Daniel Sullivan. The suit seeks to block certification if the senator loses, even though the state Supreme Court already cleared both names for the ballot.
"The case is a dead loser," Eisen declared.
He argued Trump likely understands as much. "I think he knows he's going to lose here and in his other crazy lawsuits," Eisen wrote, adding that the real aim is "to lay the foundation for his post-election sour grapes."
He also said state attorneys general are ready to fight. "In all of my years working with the state AGs, I have never seen such preparedness, particularly for midterm elections," Eisen wrote.
"Whatever the cause of the Trump DOJ's panicked meddling, we're not going to let it happen," he wrote.