WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has escalated its investigation over an Alaska Senate candidate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent, sending letters advising a prominent Democratic attorney and others that they are considered targets of the criminal inquiry.
The letter to attorney Marc Elias, who for years has represented Democratic presidential campaigns and the party itself in election-related challenges — and has himself been a target of President Donald Trump — is among numerous ones that have been issued, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Target letters are sometimes issued to people the department intends to indict, but they do not necessarily mean someone will be charged.
They come as the department has ramped up an investigation into a race headlined by two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. Also on the ballot is retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan, whose presence the Trump administration is investigating as a potential effort to spark voter confusion and steal votes from the incumbent Republican.
A look at the latest developments:
Criminal investigation has intensified in recent days
The criminal investigation has been quietly unfolding for months but gained new steam after the New York Times reported last week that Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan.
The Justice Department has issued more than 100 subpoenas and has also sent letters ordering people to preserve records as part of the investigation, according to one of the people briefed on the probe. The FBI over the weekend has also paid home visits to donors of Dan J. Sullivan.
Alaska U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters in Anchorage on Friday that the new revelations led to a “significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska.” He declined to say what specific crimes authorities were investigating.
“I’m not making any assumptions on whether a crime has been committed or not,” Heyman said last week. “That’s why we are conducting that thorough investigation.”
Peltola has said she didn’t know anything about the effort to put Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot.
“I am not interested in tricking voters,” Peltola said last week.
Democrats, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have also repeatedly denied that they were involved in any campaign trick. Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest.
Recruiting spoiler candidates to siphon votes from the other major party is a practice that has been used by Republicans and Democrats alike for decades without drawing criminal scrutiny. But Trump's Justice Department says it takes the matter seriously.
“Everybody agrees that there is a man running that doesn’t want to run, that doesn’t expect to be senator, that is only running to confuse Alaskan voters,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Fox News. “And so that’s why the Department of Justice has been fighting tooth and nail to stop this process.”
Blanche declined to discuss the target letters, saying he was not going to “ confirm anything that has to do with an ongoing investigation.”
Elias is a fixture of Democratic politics — and longtime Trump target
Elias has for years been a target of Trump's ire due in part to his role as general counsel for the 2016 presidential campaign of Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
During that campaign, he and his then-law firm paid for political research into Trump that ultimately led to the creation of a dossier of allegations on the Republican candidate's connections to Russia that contained salacious gossip, unverified rumors and discredited information.
Trump has long been furious about the research, known casually as the "Steele dossier," and last year announced that he would sanction the Perkins Coie firm by revoking security clearances of attorneys at the firm. The punishment was blocked after a court challenge.
Elias, who did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday, alluded to that history in a statement that said: “No one should be surprised that President Trump’s Department of Justice is targeting me and my law firm on Election Day. This administration has repeatedly weaponized the DOJ against the President’s political enemies despite zero evidence of wrongdoing, and we are the latest targets."
What is the significance of a target letter?
A target letter is a letter that the Justice Department sometimes sends to individuals whom it sees as at legitimate risk of indictment. The department defines a “target” as a person against whom it has gathered substantial evidence linking them to a possible crime and regards as a potential defendant.
The Justice Department does not typically require targets of its investigations to testify before a grand jury in part because of constitutional protections against self-incrimination.
In this case and others, though, getting a target letter does not necessarily mean that a person will be indicted. The Trump administration has repeatedly struggled to secure grand jury indictments in politically sensitive cases.
“We will not be intimidated by a sham investigation. We are going to keep working around the clock to support our clients and make sure President Trump and his party enjoy a well-deserved beating at the ballot box," Elias said in a statement.
The Justice Department as of Tuesday evening still had not appealed a ruling from a federal judge in Alaska who dismissed its attempt to halt certification of a Peltola win until an unspecified investigation determines if voters were confused.
U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason dismissed the case without even holding a hearing as even the Republican-run state of Alaska excoriated the administration’s move in court.
Gleason cited several reasons to dismiss the lawsuit, one of which was that the administration never made clear how it could determine whether voters were confused while preserving the secrecy of the ballot.
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