Trump Calls for Peltola to Be Prosecuted After Report Ties Her Campaign to a Second Dan Sullivan

Updated 02:27 UTC

The top federal prosecutor in Alaska publicly confirmed on Friday that a criminal investigation is under way into the alleged effort to place a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the Senate ballot. US Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters in Anchorage that the investigation has been running for several months and that the New York Times report this week brought what he called a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska. "We are acting on it intensely and swiftly," Heyman said. He declined to say what crimes investigators are examining or who the targets are, and he said no charges have been announced. Public confirmation of a federal criminal investigation is rare, and it came four days before the Nov. 3 election. Heyman said he had returned to the case about 24 hours earlier, after an earlier recusal was lifted, and that he had not discussed the complaints with the White House.

In the parallel civil case, the Justice Department filed papers on Friday asking a federal judge to order Alaska to preserve and segregate all ballots that rank Daniel J. Sullivan, the retired Petersburg teacher who shares the incumbent senator's name. The filing said the government seeks the step "for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary," and argued the measure would be impossible after Election Day. The department also asked the court to fast-track sworn answers, documents and depositions from Peltola's campaign committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and asked US District Judge Sharon Gleason to rule by Monday. Alaska opposed the ballot request the same day, arguing that ballots are already preserved for 22 months and that setting ballots aside during voting would violate ballot secrecy. Gleason has not ruled.

Peltola denied the allegations again on Thursday at an event in Juneau. "I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters," she said. Her campaign committee, Alaskans for Mary, has said it did not recruit any candidates into the race. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has denied involvement, and Daniel J. Sullivan has said he entered the race on his own. He won about 2.5 percent of the vote in the August primary.

President Donald Trump repeated his call for Peltola's prosecution at a campaign rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday night. According to The Wall Street Journal's live coverage of the rally, Trump said Peltola should be prosecuted and removed from the ballot, and said Attorney General Todd Blanche, who traveled with him on Air Force One and attended the rally, will have the final say over whether charges are brought. The FBI office in Anchorage has asked anyone with information about the candidacy to contact it through its tips page.

Updated 01:57 UTC

The Justice Department on Thursday expanded its criminal investigation into the alleged effort to recruit a second Dan Sullivan in the Alaska Senate race, sending dozens of new grand jury subpoenas, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Associated Press reported that a raft of new grand jury subpoenas and records preservation demands were issued on Thursday, and that more were expected the same day. CNN reported that federal prosecutors had issued more than 40 grand jury subpoenas and record preservation notices to key targets by Wednesday evening, with additional subpoenas expected on Thursday.

A Justice Department official told the Journal that prosecutors are exploring whether to bring charges alleging a conspiracy to violate voters' rights, and that federal prosecutors in Alaska and the department's Civil Rights Division are leading the probe, which the department first began in August. CNN reported that Michael Heyman, the US attorney in Alaska, who had recused himself early in the investigation, returned to the case on Wednesday afternoon at the request of department leadership. "Suddenly the options in the criminal case became much wider," a department official told CNN on Thursday.

The AP reported that the potential targets of the investigation are unclear, and no charges were announced in the reports. Peltola's campaign has said it had "no involvement with either Sullivan campaign." President Donald Trump, asked on Thursday about the race, told reporters, "Well, you're going to have to see what happens," and said, "It's hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run," according to the AP.

Updated 12:44 UTC

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday night ordered the state Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the reported effort to recruit a second Dan Sullivan violated Alaska law, and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted.

Dunleavy announced the order in a post on X at about 9 p.m. Wednesday. He said the New York Times report showed evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska elections, and that it substantially supported the findings of an earlier Division of Elections review of the candidacy. "Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support," he wrote. "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.

Dunleavy did not name a specific law he believes was broken. Election experts note that recruiting a candidate who shares an opponent's name, a practice often called ballot stacking, is common in campaigns and generally legal. The Juneau Independent said it asked the Peltola campaign for comment late Wednesday and did not receive an immediate response.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that the Justice Department said in court filings on Wednesday afternoon that it plans to seek information from the Peltola campaign about the Times allegations as part of its lawsuit over the ballot.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola to be prosecuted and removed from the ballot, hours after The New York Times reported that members of her campaign helped recruit a second candidate named Dan Sullivan to run against the Republican incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan.

"We caught them cold, and Mary Peltola should resign from the race," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before leaving to campaign in Ohio. "I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did, and I think that the people that participated with her should." Earlier he wrote on Truth Social: "She shouldn't be allowed to run, and neither should the FAKE Dan Sullivan!" Trump named no law he believes Peltola broke, but he accused her of "fraud to the public" for her campaign's repeated denials.

What the Times found

The Times report rests on text messages between members of Peltola's campaign and on interviews with former campaign manager Elisa Rios. Campaign staff discussed recruiting people who shared the two-term Republican's name, working with a Democratic operative from Ohio, the report said. They settled on Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher in the Petersburg fishing community. He survived the state's August open primary and is one of four candidates on the Nov. 3 ranked choice ballot.

Rios told the Times that Peltola was not personally involved in the recruiting but was "definitely aware" of the effort. Rios was fired in August, and the Times said she tried to retract her comments last week.

Denials from the campaigns

Peltola's campaign again denied any role. "The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign," it said, adding that "no tweet or threat from any DC politician will keep her away from that fight." At a campaign stop, Peltola called the report a distraction.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied running at the Democrats' behest, saying in June he had no contact with Peltola's campaign: "Zero, none, zilch." The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also denied a role, though the Times reported its staffers appeared in the text exchanges.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who has endorsed Sullivan, said Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Peltola, calling what was revealed a pattern of lies and coverups. Sen. Sullivan's campaign said Peltola spent months denying any link to the scheme.

The legal fight already under way

Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Fox News that recruiting a same-name candidate "should be illegal," but he identified no crime and pointed to the administration's civil suit. The Justice Department sued on Oct. 23 to block Alaska from certifying the Senate result if Peltola wins, arguing that the second Sullivan could confuse voters.

State officials had earlier ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible as a candidacy filed to confuse voters, but the Alaska Supreme Court ruled he qualified to run. On the ballot, the senator appears as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican incumbent, and the other candidate as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. As of Monday, 46,204 ballots had been cast in Alaska, according to AP data. The race is one of a handful expected to decide Senate control, and polls show it tight. "It's a dirty campaign trick," said Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor. "But now it is in the hands of the voters, not litigation."