President Donald Trump said Friday that he personally directed his administration to file the Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to block Alaska from certifying its U.S. Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola.

"I'm the one that said do it," Trump told reporters as he landed for a campaign rally in Florida, per the AP via Scripps News.

He escalated the rhetoric Saturday after voting in Palm Beach, calling the situation "pure corruption" and accusing Democrats — without offering evidence — of using the candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan to interfere in the election, according to Straight Arrow.

The lawsuit, filed late Thursday just 11 days before the Nov. 3 election, asks a federal court to block certification of any result in which Sen.

Dan S. Sullivan loses by fewer votes than Dan J. Sullivan receives — effectively premising a challenge on a ballot that has not yet been counted.

Straight Arrow reports that David Becker of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research told The New York Times he could not recall another instance of the federal government trying to block certification of an election, particularly before ballots were cast, and said the feds have no authority to tell Alaska when or how to certify.

Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted Saturday on X that the DOJ "does not seek to stop any ballot from being cast or to stop the certification of Alaska's election," saying the litigation only seeks to preserve ballots.

Democracy Docket reports that the department's own complaint flatly contradicts him, asking the court to block the state "from certifying any result that may be impacted by voter confusion" pending an investigation into whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant for the senator.

Blanche also said Justice Department lawyers wrote the suit and did not coordinate with any campaign or candidate, per Straight Arrow.

The dispute centers on Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher from Petersburg who appears on the ballot without a party designation, next to Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, listed as the registered Republican incumbent.

PBS News reports Republicans accuse the challenger of being a Democratic plant to siphon votes in a race expected to be decided by a few thousand votes, but Daniel J. Sullivan says he is running of his own accord.

He took 4,107 votes — about 2% — in the August primary, and Alaska's Supreme Court already rejected a prior Republican effort to remove him, notes the AP via Scripps News.

Democratic nominee Mary Peltola called the suit a "desperate attempt to silence Alaskans" and "the kind of corruption that Alaskans are sick and tired of," telling MS NOW she is hopeful a wide margin will make it moot, HuffPost reports.

Common Cause, backed by the ACLU, filed an injunction to intervene, calling the suit "an insult to Alaska voters," with president Virginia Kase Solomon saying politicians don't dictate election outcomes, per Straight Arrow. HuffPost also notes Republican Sen.

Lisa Murkowski criticized the filing, saying the DOJ should never have brought it.

Legal experts give the suit little chance. Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller told the AP that federal law "simply doesn't let the Department of Justice enjoin certification," predicting it could be mooted by a wide Democratic win or a narrow Republican one, or dismissed next month.

PBS News reports experts say the suit's reliance on the National Voter Registration Act's "protect the integrity" language is too vague to let a judge overrule voters, and it never explains how votes could be investigated given ballot secrecy.

With Alaska's ranked-choice count expected to take weeks, and an initiative to repeal that system also on the ballot, the dispute could linger well past Election Day.