Alaska governor orders probe into alleged effort to confuse Senate voters

The Justice Department has begun issuing a new wave of subpoenas stemming from an ongoing criminal probe of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race and alleged efforts by Democrats to recruit a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, multiple sources familiar with the matter told News.  

The subpoenas are targeting Democratic officials believed to be tied to the effort to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan to appear on Alaska’s ballot, marking a new escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to intervene in the race just days before the midterm elections. 

The Trump administration filed a separate civil lawsuit last week seeking an injunction against the state certifying the results of its election in the event Sen. Sullivan narrowly loses, which a federal judge is expected to rule on in the coming days. 

The subpoenas follow a report Wednesday by The New York Times that detailed alleged efforts by Democrats and some in Peltola’s campaign to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, to be on the ballot with incumbent Republican Dan S. Sullivan.

The Times report said it relied on 12 sources, text messages and documents that allegedly showed members of Peltola’s campaign, lawyers for Peltola, and senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) pushing to find a spoiler candidate who could potentially siphon votes from Sen. Sullivan and benefit Peltola.

Reacting to the report in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Attorney General Todd Blanche described Sullivan’s candidacy and the efforts to recruit him as “cheating” and “fraud” and suggested more imminent action from the Justice Department in the coming days. 

“I expect you’re going to hear more from the Department of Justice this week as we learn more information,” Blanche said. 

Following The New York Times report, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered an investigation into the effort to recruit candidates for the state’s Senate race.

In a statement, Dunleavy said the report revealed new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates he said were intended to confuse voters and misdirect their votes.

Alaskans for Mary, the campaign committee for Peltola, said through a spokesperson on Wednesday that it “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.”

The DSCC told News in a statement that it was “not involved with Dan J. Sullivan.”

Alaska’s Supreme Court had previously affirmed that Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy was legal — even if it was not entirely in “good faith” or an attempt to “confuse and mislead” voters as the Trump administration and Republicans contend.

But DOJ prosecutors are separately probing, according to sources, whether the behind-the-scenes maneuvering to include Dan J. Sullivan’s name on the ballot could violate potential federal conspiracy statutes. 

The subpoenas also follow President Donald Trump’s public demands that Peltola herself face prosecution — just one among a series of instances where he’s called on the Justice Department to prosecute prominent Democrats. 

Typically, the Justice Department has adhered to a practice of avoiding taking overt investigative steps in politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of an election. Attorney General Blanche, however, downplayed the relevance of the rule in comments to reporters last week. 

Gov. Dunleavy said he was directing the state’s Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the effort violated Alaska law and whether criminal charges or civil action were warranted.

“The evidence will determine what happens next,” he said.

“Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support,” Dunleavy said. “Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections.”

He added that anyone or any organization found to have broken the law “must be held accountable.”

The Alaska Division of Elections investigated similar concerns in June, Gov. Dunleavy said, adding that the new reporting substantially supported the division’s findings.