Justice Department’s Dan Sullivan criminal probe accelerates after Alaska campaign revelations

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, Tierney Sneed, CNN

The Justice Department has dramatically accelerated a criminal probe into whether Alaska Democrats sought to confuse voters by recruiting a Senate candidate intended to siphon votes from the Republican, issuing dozens of new grand jury subpoenas and homing in on new potential charges, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The moves came on the heels of a New York Times report published Wednesday describing an alleged coordinated effort linked to Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign. The report provided investigators material that they hadn’t previously obtained, two officials familiar with the matter said.

Federal prosecutors issued more than 40 grand jury subpoenas and record preservation notices to key targets by that evening, one of the officials said.

Additional subpoenas are expected on Thursday, that person added.

The Alaska activity follows an already frenetic series of Justice Department actions that have marked a stark difference with previous administrations, including the first Trump term, when it took pains to remain out of the public eye in the weeks leading up to the election.

Justice Department officials claim the Dan Sullivans investigation, a highly-visible search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home, criminal charges against prominent critics of the president, and challenging voter rolls in California and other states, are normal and time-sensitive law enforcement activity.

They also frame the election-related efforts in Alaska and other states as intended to safeguard the votes, not sway the election as critics have alleged.

‘Decoy Dan’ and Alaskan voters

The federal investigation over Daniel J. Sullivan, nicknamed “Decoy Dan” by his opponents, had been moving at a slow clip, people familiar with the matter said.

Republican state officials had sought to disqualify the Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot, arguing his was not a genuine candidacy but rather an attempt to confuse voters who wanted to vote for incumbent Sen. Daniel Sullivan. But the state supreme court rejected those efforts and restored the dueling Sullivans on the ballot.

Michael Heyman, the US Attorney in Alaska, recused himself early in the federal criminal investigation in part because he was in discussions with Senators Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski for a judgeship nomination in the state, sources familiar with the matter said. That left the investigation to be run by career officials in his office and prosecutors from the department’s Civil Rights Division.

The investigation had already roiled the US Attorney’s office in Alaska, one of the officials said, where some career prosecutors have balked at aspects of the probe and whether the effort broke federal law or simply represents electioneering dirty tricks. A department official denied the alleged backlash.

Before Wednesday, prosecutors had issued some grand jury subpoenas and interviewed witnesses, one of the sources said, though at least one of the witnesses has largely gone quiet in recent months.

After the Times article published, some department officials questioned why the Times appeared to have evidence that prosecutors had not yet obtained.

Heymen un-recused Wednesday afternoon at the request of department leadership.

“Suddenly the options in the criminal case became much wider,” a department official said Thursday.

A second department official said investigators were looking to potentially bring civil rights charges, including a deprivation of rights charge that more typically is levied against law enforcement officials for wrongdoing.

“I think they should be prosecuted,” President Donald Trump said Wednesday, referring to Peltola and Dan J. Sullivan. “To me, that’s voter fraud at the highest level.”

The lawsuit

Separately, department officials filed a long-shot lawsuit last wee seeking to delay certification if Sen. Sullivan loses and the votes case for Daniel J. Sullivan under the ranked choice system would have been enough to change the outcome.

Senior department attorneys worked quickly to amend that lawsuit, which proposes an undefined “investigation” into whether voters were misled, after the Times article was published.

Alaska’s Republican-led elections office is pressing a court to dismiss the case quickly, arguing that lawsuit seeks to sow “doubt” and will “cast a cloud over” the contest. Because of Alaska’s ranked-choice system, it could be weeks before the winner of the Senate race is declared.

Critics have slammed the lawsuit as political maneuvering, particularly after Trump told reporters he directed it. Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to walk back the assertion by saying in an interview days later that Justice Department was conducting its own research, but declined to discuss his conversations with Trump, who had publicly raised the issue for months.

State and federal officials briefly discussed a potential settlement in the case but have been unable to agree on what one source described as a “middle-of-the-road approach.” Among the proposals was providing additional instructions for poll workers to clarify for voters which Sullivan is which.

Some inside the department privately admit that the Alaska lawsuit, which is all but destined to fail, still serves a purpose by creating headlines that warn Alaskans about what one source described as a “massive voter fraud attempt.”

A state official told CNN that there are examples of voters who are well-informed about the dueling Sullivans still erroneously filling out their ballots and having to seek new ballots. It’s unclear how many of the spoiled ballots are related to the Sullivans confusion.

It’s a “preservation lawsuit” one federal official told CNN. “It will allow us to challenge the election if a challenge becomes necessary.”

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