Colorado secretary of state considering legal action against Trump, postmaster general

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) on Monday said that her office is considering legal action against President Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

“In 2017, I ran for secretary of state because the president was trying to suppress voters, including thousands of Coloradans,” Griswold said in an appearance on CNN. “As secretary of state, I will not allow him to suppress any American and will fight him with all options on the table. So we are looking at possible legal action against both the postmaster general and the president himself.”

She went on to say that she did not intend to “get in front of our attorneys” on the details of the legal action but said the state had several legal options.

“The president … is trying to suppress voters in November when he should be more concerned about suppressing the virus,” Griswold said, in reference to Trump’s frequent attacks on the legitimacy of mail-in voting. In Colorado, she said, “We send out ballots three weeks before Election Day and actually ask Coloradans to stop returning them eight days before, because they need to get in by Election Day.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold says President Trump is “trying to suppress voters in November when he should be more concerned about suppressing the virus.”

The state is looking at possible legal action against the President and the postmaster general, she says. pic.twitter.com/MWZ5sNLUly

— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) August 17, 2020

Griswold’s comments came a day after The Washington Post reported that attorneys general in several other states are mulling legal action to prevent operational changes at the U.S. Postal Service. The attorneys general offices in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina are reportedly in talks for such a lawsuit.

Officials in Western states, many of which use predominantly or entirely mail-in ballots, have pushed back against the president’s characterizations of them. Among them are Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), one of the Senate Republicans who has most frequently broken with Trump.