On Alaska’s primary election day, NBC News — citing unidentified sources — reported that the U.S. Department of Justice has issued grand jury subpoenas as it investigates whether Petersburg candidate Dan J. Sullivan may have somehow violated federal law.
If that’s true, subpoenas haven’t reached Sullivan, currently running third in this week’s election and the person that incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan has accused of running a sham campaign.
Subpoenas also haven’t reached anyone in the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola as of Friday, according to the campaign. That includes Anton McParland, Peltola’s former campaign manager, who is still with the campaign.
Jalen Lee, a spokesman for the Alaska Democratic Party, said on Thursday that no one at the party has gotten a subpoena.
Amber Lee, a consultant who helped Dan J. Sullivan start his campaign, said on Thursday that she has not been subpoenaed. Lee is no longer working with Sullivan’s campaign.
A spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Elections said no one with the division has received a subpoena about Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign.
Dan J. Sullivan said by email on Thursday that he has not received a subpoena. He said he’s refraining from saying more about the issue until he understands more about what’s happening.
In July, NBC News reported that the U.S. Attorney’s office and acting Alaska Attorney General Cori Mills were looking for evidence of wire fraud or a conspiracy to deprive Alaska voters of a free and fair elections process, which could be a civil rights violation.
Reagan Zimmerman-Hartzheim, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Alaska, said that under DOJ policy, she could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.
Throughout his campaign, Dan S. Sullivan has called Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign fake, and a trick to deceive Alaska voters. Dan J. Sullivan, also a registered Republican, has denied that claim.
“My intention is not to trick people,” Dan J. Sullivan told the New York Times in an interview this month. “I would hope people are informed enough to know the difference between an incumbent senator and a teacher.”
Dan J. Sullivan, a Republican, remains on track to advance to November’s general election, alongside Dan S. Sullivan, Peltola and a fourth person. Progressive Democrat David Leslie led the race for that spot on Friday.
A spokesperson for Dan S. Sullivan’s re-election campaign did not return emails about the possible Department of Justice investigation.
Ahead of this week’s statewide primary election, President Donald Trump took to social media with a statement that closely resembled Dan S. Sullivan’s remarks.
In the statement, the president claimed Dan J.’s candidacy is the result of “trickery” by “Crooked, Radical Left Dumocrats” who put up another Dan Sullivan “to take Votes away from our Great Senator of the same name.”
The Alaska Democratic Party was not involved in Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy, both Sullivan and the party have said repeatedly.
“I have not spoken to Mary (Peltola). I wouldn’t even know who to speak to,” Dan. J. Sullivan told his hometown newspaper, Petersburg Pilot, in June.
In the Times interview, Dan J. Sullivan suggested he was worried about the possibility that he could face federal investigation.
“I’m just a guy, and they’re scary,” he said. “Whether you’ve done something right or wrong, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore.”
Across the country, federal judges are tracking an increasing number of ungrounded, politically motivated prosecutions by the Department of Justice.
These include high-profile failed prosecutions against anti-ICE protesters in Chicago, a man who threw a sandwich at a federal official in Washington, D.C., and a man the president accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.
Last weekend, new U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said he would take the president’s views into consideration when making decisions on prosecutions.
Traditionally, the Department of Justice has acted independently from presidents and has sought to preserve that independence.
In 1973, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy both resigned rather than follow President Richard Nixon’s orders to fire a special prosecutor examining the Watergate scandal. Those resignations spurred impeachment proceedings against Nixon.
Last month, the U.S. Senate confirmed Blanche in office by a 50-49 vote. Dan S. Sullivan, who voted “yes,” was a decisive vote in favor of Blanche’s confirmation.
Aubrey Wieber is the director of the 907 Initiative, an organization opposing Dan S. Sullivan’s re-election.
Wieber said he doesn’t know if Dan S. Sullivan is working with the Trump administration to manufacture false claims, but he does see the accusations as part of a broader national pattern, with Trump attempting to sow doubt about elections in general.
“I do think this is bogus,” he said of the accusations against Dan J. Sullivan. “Look how many investigations and how many people have looked into this, and no one has found any indication that Dan J. Sullivan is a sham candidate.”
In the just-completed primary election, third-party groups spent millions of dollars to advertise fringe candidates in hopes that they would finish in the top four and advance to the November general election. Dan J. Sullivan wasn’t generally targeted by those ads.
“If this is the ace in the hole,” Wieber asked, “Don’t you think you would spend to make sure that he makes it into the top four?”
