Missouri attorney general sues New York for election interference after Trump conviction

By St. Louis Post-Dispatch via My Courier-Tribune

JEFFERSON CITY — Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Wednesday made it official: he sued the state of New York, alleging interference in the 2024 presidential election.

The Republican attorney general, who is attempting to secure a four-year term in office, filed the lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit cites federal law giving the high court “original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more States.”

Bailey said June 20 he would be filing a lawsuit against New York.

The lawsuit comes after a New York City jury in May found former President Donald Trump guilty of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal.

“This lawfare is poisonous to American democracy. The American people ought to be able to participate in a presidential election free from New York’s interference. Any gag order and sentence should be stayed until after the election,” the lawsuit asserts.

The New York attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bailey’s announcement continues a string of headline-grabbing actions in the run-up to the Aug. 6 Republican primary for attorney general:

• He sued liberal advocacy group Media Matters after it said ads for major brands on Elon Musk’s social media site X appeared next to antisemitic posts.

• He launched an investigation into Kansas City for “doxxing” Chiefs football player Harrison Butker after Butker’s controversial remarks at a commencement speech.

• He is suing Planned Parenthood, accusing the organization of trafficking minors for abortions, based on an undercover video by Project Veritas.

Bailey’s lawsuit against the state of New York claims the state’s actions “have created constitutional harms that threaten to infringe the rights of Missouri’s voters and electors.”

The petition says the state’s gag order and impending sentence “unlawfully impede the ability of electors to fulfill their federal functions” and violate “the First Amendment rights of Missouri citizens to listen to the campaign speech of a specific individual on specific topics.”

The gag order and impending sentence also violate the Purcell principle against last-minute changes to election rules by courts before an election.

Bailey faces former federal prosecutor Will Scharf in the Republican primary, who has gained attention as a member of Trump’s legal team.

Scharf declined to comment Wednesday on Bailey’s latest lawsuit.

The judge in Trump’s New York case on Tuesday delayed sentencing until at least September as the judge agreed to weigh the possible impact of a new Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Trump had been scheduled to face sentencing July 11, just before the Republicans’ nominating convention, on his New York convictions on felony charges of falsifying business records. He denies any wrongdoing.

The postponement sets the sentencing for Sept. 18 at the earliest — if it happens at all, since Trump’s lawyers are arguing that the Supreme Court ruling merits not only delaying the sentencing but tossing out his conviction.

The immunity decision on presidential immunity Monday all but closed the door on the possibility that Trump could face trial in a 2020 election interference case in Washington before this November’s vote.

The timeline in itself is a victory for the former president, who has sought to delay his four criminal cases past the balloting.