The Justice Department has sharply escalated its criminal investigation into the strange Alaska Senate race involving two candidates named Dan Sullivan.
Federal prosecutors are now issuing target letters to prominent Democrats and pursuing more than 100 subpoenas connected to the alleged effort to recruit a same-name candidate who could confuse voters and peel support away from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Among the reported recipients is Marc Elias, one of the most powerful Democratic election lawyers in the country and a longtime figure in the legal campaigns waged against President Trump.
The first breaking report laid out the scale of the federal escalation:
ABC News reports that prosecutors are in the process of issuing more than 100 subpoenas along with at least 20 target letters and preservation notices.
Sources told the outlet that a federal grand jury in Alaska is examining possible conspiracy and donor-fraud offenses tied to the recruitment of retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan.
The candidate’s name closely resembles that of incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The investigation centers on whether Democrats or people aligned with Democrat Mary Peltola helped engineer the candidacy to mislead voters in a race that could determine control of the Senate.
Peltola has denied knowing about any effort to recruit the second Sullivan, while the retired teacher has denied running at the direction of Democrats.
The Associated Press reports that the investigation had been underway for months but gained new momentum after reporting linked people around Peltola’s campaign to the recruitment effort. Alaska U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman said the new information produced a significant surge of federal law-enforcement resources into the state.
A target letter is not an indictment. It does mean prosecutors believe the recipient faces a serious risk of being charged based on evidence gathered in a grand-jury investigation.
Elias responded publicly by accusing President Trump’s Justice Department of weaponizing the investigation against him:
That complaint is rich coming from a lawyer whose former firm paid for opposition research that became the discredited Steele dossier during the 2016 campaign.
The Washington Post reports that prosecutors are exploring possible civil-rights violations based on allegations that the second Sullivan was recruited to create deliberate ballot confusion. The paper also reports that Elias’s firm represents Peltola’s campaign and that federal officials have issued target and record-preservation letters as the probe moves quickly.
Any allegation still has to be proven. But voters deserve an honest ballot, and recruiting a political decoy with a nearly identical name would be a rotten attack on the election process if the evidence supports what investigators are examining.
Peltola framed the federal scrutiny as proof that her opponents are frightened:
That is her political spin. The harder fact is that a federal grand jury is reportedly gathering evidence, more than 100 subpoenas are in motion, and potential targets are being formally notified.
No target letter guarantees an indictment, and no one named in the reporting has been convicted of a crime in this matter. But this is no longer a minor campaign controversy.
The Justice Department is treating the alleged Alaska ballot scheme as a serious criminal investigation, and the people who arranged it may soon have much bigger problems than an Election Day headline.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
