The Trump administration is surging federal law enforcement resources to Alaska amid the “troubling new revelations” of an apparent Democratic scheme to siphon votes away from incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in the midterm election.
The criminal investigation into “Decoy Dan” Sullivan’s alleged sham Senate campaign in the Last Frontier has been ongoing for the last “several months,” but additional assets are being deployed as a direct result of a bombshell New York Times report on the alleged involvement of Democratic Senate hopeful Mary Peltola’s campaign, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), in the plot, Alaska’s top federal prosecutor revealed Friday.
“This new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska,” Michael Heyman, the US Attorney for District of Alaska, told reporters at a press conference in Anchorage.
“As we speak, law enforcement around the country are taking investigative steps with respect to the criminal investigation,” he added, noting that he could not discuss the specifics of what those steps were due to the ongoing probe.
Heyman said several attorneys from his office have been assigned to the matter as well and that authorities are taking the allegations in the New York Times report “extremely seriously.”
“We are acting on it intensely and swiftly,” he said.
Earlier this week, Fox News reported that the DOJ had issued at least 30 subpoenas within 24 hours of the new revelations
“Every Alaskan deserves a fair election and they’re going to get one,” Heyman vowed, warning that “anyone who tries to illegally deceive voters and interfere with the election will answer for it.”
Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, and several other sources told the New York Times that campaign aides were instructed to search for people named “Dan Sullivan” that could jump into the Senate race as part of an effort to confuse voters intending to cast a ballot for Sen. Sullivan.
Peltola, a former congresswoman, was not directly involved in the recruitment effort but was “definitely aware” of it, Rios said.
In her first public remarks about the scandal, Peltola told Alaskans that she “knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent.”
“I am not interested in tricking voters,” she said during a campaign event Thursday.
President Trump called on Peltola to drop out of the race and be criminally prosecuted in the wake of the report.
At the press conference, Heyman said the criminal investigation is operating in parallel to a civil investigation into the scheme.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit before the New York Times report dropped attempting to delay the certification of the Alaska Senate election results.
“The department is not asking the court to declare a winner or loser or change the votes in any way,” Heman said of the lawsuit. “It’s simply to preserve those ballots.”
He said the DOJ plans to ask the judge handling the case to grant expedited discovery by Monday.
Heyman noted he was recused from the investigation until recently because he was being considered by the White House for a judicial nomination position.
“The White House has nominated someone else for that position and so, therefore, the facts and circumstances have changed, and they have decided to rescind … that recusal,” he said.
