Peter Ticktin, an 80-year-old Florida lawyer and Trump’s boyhood friend from the New York Military Academy, is pushing the president to declare a national emergency to seize control of the 2026 midterm elections, according to reporting published July 6. Ticktin claims multiple countries interfered in the 2020 election to steal it from Trump and is urging an executive order to restrict voting methods based on alleged foreign interference through electronic voting machines.
Ticktin and Trump attended the New York Military Academy together, a boarding school about 50 miles north of New York City. “We were very close. In fact, you could say we were best friends in our senior year of high school,” Ticktin told CNN. He has represented Trump in civil litigation and joined Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk convicted of breaching voting systems, in the Oval Office last week following her release from prison.
The proposed emergency order would empower Trump to ban mail-in ballots and restrict the use of voting machines. According to CNN’s reporting, Ticktin claims that Venezuela, China, Iran and other nations were involved in 2020 election interference. “With the evidence that we’ve got, and with the evidence that would be forthcoming, that there’ll be no question about it — and what these machines did,” Ticktin said. “It’s a surreptitious overtaking of a country.”
However, U.S. intelligence reached different conclusions. A 2021 intelligence assessment found that while Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela attempted to influence the 2020 election in various ways, no country “attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results,” according to CNN. The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security also debunked allegations of foreign hacking in a March 2021 report, calling such claims “not credible.”
State election officials and election law experts warn that declaring a national emergency to control elections would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis. The U.S. Constitution gives power over elections to the states and Congress, not the president. One White House official told CNN that while Ticktin is well-meaning, he appears to overstate his current relationship with Trump, noting that Ticktin does not speak with the president regularly and does not influence the White House’s policies toward elections.
Ticktin has become a prominent figure among election deniers since Trump’s 2020 loss. He represents other leading figures in the movement, including former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and many of the convicted Capitol rioters from January 6, 2021. He also authored a 2020 book titled “What Makes Trump Tick: My Years with Donald Trump from New York Military Academy to the Present.”
In December, Ticktin sent a nine-page letter to Trump making the case for a presidential pardon for Peters, calling her “a critical, and necessary witness to the most serious crime perpetrated against the United States in history,” referring to the 2020 election. Within days, Trump granted Peters a federal pardon. Trump also mounted a monthslong pressure campaign against Colorado to secure her release from state prison, which succeeded when Democratic Governor Jared Polis granted a commutation in May.
Legal Challenges and Controversies
Ticktin’s efforts to advance election-related litigation have drawn judicial rebuke. In a 2022 civil lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, a judge threw out the suit and sanctioned Ticktin and other lawyers for making allegations “that were either knowingly false or made in reckless disregard for the truth,” according to CNN. An appeals court upheld the sanctions.
In cases involving voting machine companies, Ticktin’s conduct has sparked further controversy. Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems told a judge that metadata in a brief filed by Ticktin showed it was authored by Stefanie Lambert, an election-denying lawyer already banned from the case for leaking company files. In later filings, Ticktin switched the author name to Rick Astley, of “rickroll” meme fame. Internal emails made public in court filings showed Ticktin insulting Dominion lawyers and spurning collegiality typically seen among attorneys.
Trump dismissed the idea of a national emergency for elections in late February, saying he would prefer Congress to pass voter ID legislation. However, Trump did release an executive order earlier this year seeking to curb mail-in voting, though federal judges have blocked the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out the order.
Sources
- CNN — Peter Ticktin’s recent push for Trump to declare a national emergency; Ticktin’s relationship with Trump from the New York Military Academy; the 2020 election denialism claims and intelligence assessments; constitutional concerns from officials and experts; details on Ticktin’s legal cases and controversies.
- The Washington Post — Trump’s plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in midterm elections.
- PBS News — The 17-page draft proposal that would give Trump extraordinary power over the 2026 midterm elections.
- ABC News — Pro-Trump attorneys circulating a draft emergency executive order giving Trump sweeping power over elections.
- Democracy Docket — Peter Ticktin leading the effort to have Trump declare a national emergency based on alleged 2020 foreign election interference.
- The Guardian — Peter Ticktin as a Florida lawyer promoting a legally dubious plan that experts say could sharply restrict voting rights.
