DOJ preemptively sues to block Alaska Senate results if Republican narrowly loses

The lawsuit cites name confusion around Sen. Dan Sullivan and another candidate.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he had directed the Justice Department to preemptively file a lawsuit to try to block the certification of the crucial Alaska Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, citing name confusion among the candidates.

Republicans have alleged that candidate Dan J. Sullivan is running a sham campaign to purposefully confuse voters and draw votes away from incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan based on their names being similar .

Asked Friday about the lawsuit, which the Justice Department filed on Thursday, Trump said, "Well, I'm one that said, 'Do it.'"

"They have two guys run named Dan Sullivan running. So the Democrats put up a guy never -- I don't think he ever voted before," Trump said of Dan J. Sullivan, who appears on the ballot with no party affiliation and told The New York Times that he has in the past voted for both Democrats and Republicans.

"All of a sudden he decides to run for the Senate, and his name is Dan Sullivan. One is Daniel S., one is Daniel J. The Daniel J. is the fake," Trump said.

"Should Alaska certify any electoral results tainted by the inclusion on the ballot of Daniel J. Sullivan ... the State and its officers will fail in its obligation to protect the integrity of its election," the number-three ranking official at the Department of Justice, Stanley Woodward, wrote in Thursday's filing.

An earlier legal challenge to Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy was rejected by Alaska's supreme court, which ordered that he be included on the ballot.

In bringing the case, the Justice Department says it's guarding against the possibility that Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses in a manner that suggests he would have won were it not for votes cast for Dan J. Sullivan. The incumbent senator is facing Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, as well as Dan J. Sullivan.

"To guard against this danger, it is vital that Defendants not certify any election result that may be impacted by voter confusion. An election result may be impacted by voter confusion if: (1) Senator Sullivan does not win the election; and (2) had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast instead for Senator Sullivan and Alaska's rank-choice process played out accordingly, Senator Sullivan would have won the election," Woodward wrote.

A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement, "Alaska's Division of Elections determined that Mr. Daniel J. Sullivan's candidacy was intended to mislead voters and compromise the fairness of the ballot. Therefore, the Justice Department, consistent with the National Voter Registration Act enacted by Congress, is taking the necessary steps to ensure that this frivolous candidacy does not undermine the integrity of Alaska's election or the will of its voters."

A spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan said, "We'll let the DOJ complaint run its course. Alaskans can tell the difference between a Democrat sideshow and Senator Sullivan's strong record of delivering for Alaska." A statement from Peltola's campaign called the suit "a despicable political threat to overturn an election."

The Alaska Secretary of State's office and a campaign spokesperson for Dan J. Sullivan did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

On Wednesday, President Trump posted on social media that he was looking at "powerful legal options" to remove Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot.

Over the summer, Alaska's election office said that Dan J. Sullivan would be removed from the ballot because the office determined his candidacy was not in good faith, but was meant, per an official, "to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot's fairness or neutrality."

Dan. J. Sullivan then sued the state over the decision, and a state judge ruled that he was eligible to be on Alaska's Senate primary ballot. The Alaska Supreme Court upheld the ruling, after which the DOJ began investigating.

Fielding questions from reporters just hours before the lawsuit was filed, Attorney General Todd Blanche wouldn't rule out the DOJ intervening in a state's election process, but suggested only a "doomsday scenario" would warrant such action.

"I mean, is there any scenario? Yes, of course. There's scenarios that we could all come up with hypothetically, you know, some doomsday scenario, for example, right?" Blanche said. "It is not DOJ's intention to, and it's never our intention to improperly interfere with elections or the state confirmation process or certification process."

ABC News' Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

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