Justice Department issues new subpoenas over Alaska spoiler candidate controversy

The Justice Department has issued at least three dozen new subpoenas and document preservation requests as part of its probe into the Alaska Senate race, a U.S. official confirmed to NBC News Thursday.

The subpoenas were sent to Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign office and those of former schoolteacher Dan J. Sullivan Jr., who is also running for Senate.

Subpoenas seeking grand jury testimony or documents, along with records preservation demands, were issued after The New York Times reported that Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan Jr. as part of an alleged effort to confuse voters in the hotly contested race.

It's the latest aggressive move by the Justice Department in a politically sensitive matter in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's midterm elections. The Justice Department has historically avoided taking overt investigative actions against candidates in the weeks before an election, or other public steps that could be perceived as attempting to influence a political outcome.

Election law experts said they were unaware of what federal law would justify the investigation.

“I don’t know what they’re putting out subpoenas to investigate because I don’t know what federal violations are implicated that DOJ would have jurisdiction over,” said Justin Levitt, a former Department of Justice official under President Joe Biden. “Sure makes it seem like the point of the investigation is to become the story.”

The information came to light the same day that the U.S. Justice Department issued subpoenas to California officials in an escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration. Earlier Thursday, a federal judge in California appointed a special master to evaluate claims by the Trump administration that the state has some 20,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls. That action came less than 24 hours after the judge rejected the Justice Department’s demand that California sequester the ballots until citizenship can be verified, a ruling the department immediately appealed.

Race is among a handful that could determine control of the Senate

For months, the Justice Department has been looking into allegations that Dan J. Sullivan Jr. entered the race to mislead voters and help Peltola’s campaign. The potential targets of the Justice Department’s investigation are unclear, but President Donald Trump earlier this week called for the criminal prosecution of Peltola and her campaign.

The new subpoenas were confirmed by a person briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing probe.

Attorney General Todd Blanche in a Fox News interview on Wednesday said he wouldn’t discuss any criminal investigations, but accused Democrats of “cheating.”

“They are trying to take votes away from the incumbent, not by running an election, not by running on issues but by putting up a person with the same name,” Blanche said.

The race is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber. Trump had previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race should Democrat Mary Peltola defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

In an updated filing Thursday, the government said the details in the Times story contradicted statements given earlier by attorneys for Democrats and the Peltola campaign, in which they said they “lack knowledge” of how Dan J. Sullivan came to run for the office.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign. “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

Alaska's Republican governor has also ordered an investigation

Separately, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into Peltola, saying the newspaper's reporting “reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections.”

“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy added, noting that the reporting “substantially supports” earlier findings by the state’s elections board into the matter.

Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the Senate even if she won the election. “Well, you’re going to have to see what happens," the president told reporters on his way to a rally in South Carolina. "It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run.”

Later, as he rallied for GOP Sen. Darline Graham, Trump said he felt Peltola “actually should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted."

Peltola dismisses the claims as a ‘distraction’

Peltola’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a message early Thursday seeking comment on Dunleavy’s order. But during a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola, a former congresswoman, suggested the Times’ report was a “distraction” from issues such as Sen. Sullivan’s support of the war in Iran.

“This is just another distraction. It’s another diversion,” she said in a video posted online. “This is all stuff to sell newspapers. This is all stuff to get subscriptions.”

Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg, ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding that his declaration of candidacy was filed “with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. He has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign: “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

Alaskan voters will see “Dan S. Sullivan” identified as a “registered Republican” and “incumbent” on their ballots, while “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” will not have a party affiliation.

The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit showed Peltola’s team aimed to coax candidates into the race, with the aim of splitting support for the GOP senator.

Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told reporters, “I think they should be prosecuted.” He earlier had posted on social media that “Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done.”

Trump's vice president supports a probe

On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance didn’t go as far as Trump did in calling for Peltola to be prosecuted but said he supported a probe into possible election fraud.

“I mean, she is a person who, for months now, has pretended that she has had nothing to do with the fact that they have put a fraudulent person, a person explicitly designed to confuse Alaska voters, on the ballot,” Vance told reporters ahead of a campaign trip to Texas. “She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it’s disgraceful.”

State Supreme Court OK'd the other Sullivan on the ballot

Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg, ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding that his declaration of candidacy was filed “with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. He has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign: “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

Alaskan voters will see “Dan S. Sullivan” identified as a “registered Republican” and “incumbent” on their ballots, while “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” will not have a party affiliation.

The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit showed Peltola’s team aimed to coax candidates into the race, with the aim of splitting support for the GOP senator.

Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told journalists, “I think they should be prosecuted.” He earlier had posted on social media that “Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done.”