The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office is declining to give an opinion on a lawmaker’s request to determine whether former President Donald Trump can be placed on the state ballot this fall after being convicted of a felony.
In a letter to Democratic Rep. Vincent Dixie, of Nashville, who requested a formal legal opinion, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said, after careful consideration, his office cannot opine based on a state law dealing with election eligibility.
“The attorney general’s statutory authority is limited to providing ‘written legal opinions’ on matters submitted by officials ‘in the discharge of their official duties.'” Skrmetti’s office said, “And Tennessee’s election officials – not individual members of the General Assembly – enforce (the state law) in specific factual scenarios.”
Tennessee’s secretary of state, who oversees elections statewide, is not popularly elected but is appointed by the General Assembly.
Dixie said in a statement he is “disappointed” but “not surprised” by the AG Office’s response. He made the request after the former president was convicted in New York last months on 34 counts of breaking business laws by paying off porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged sexual encounter before the 2016 presidential election.