Trump's DOJ escalates Alaska Senate probe as president demands Dem candidate Mary Peltola be prosecuted

Federal prosecutors have stepped up a criminal investigation into Alaska's U.S. Senate race, issuing new grand jury subpoenas amid controversy over a spoiler candidate sharing the Republican incumbent's name.A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that the subpoenas sought grand jury testimony or documents and were accompanied by records-preservation demands.Neither the number of subpoenas nor who received them was immediately clear.Democrats spent months trying to recruit a man named Dan Sullivan to run against Alaska’s Republican senator, according to a new report. Pictured: Dan J. Sullivan (left) and Republican Dan S. Sullivan (right) (Sullivan for Senate/Getty)The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing probe, said more subpoenas were expected.The Justice Department has been examining allegations for months that Dan J. Sullivan Jr. entered the race to siphon votes from the incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.The investigation's potential targets are unclear.President Donald Trump earlier this week called for the criminal prosecution of Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate, and her campaign.Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has said she did not know anything about her party's efforts to recruit Sullivan (Reuters)The subpoenas followed a New York Times report that Peltola's campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan Jr. as part of an alleged effort to confuse voters.Peltola, who is running against Sen. Dan Sullivan, denied on Thursday that she knew anything about the effort to put another candidate on the Alaska ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent.“I just want to clear the air,” she said at the top of a speech in a downtown bar in Juneau, Alaska's capital. “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”She alluded to the controversy in a fundraising post on Thursday.“They can’t win on their record so they’re trying to intimidate me into backing down,” she said, adding later: “This is just another distraction as they avoid answering for the skyrocketing cost of living we’re facing because of their tariffs and forever wars. It won’t work.”President Donald Trump has called for Mary Peltola to be prosecuted over the purported scandal (AFP/Getty)The race is considered key to control of the U.S. Senate.It is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber.Trump previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race if Democrat Mary Peltola defeats Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.State attorneys asked a court to rule on the Justice Department's lawsuit by Monday, saying the case could “cast a cloud over Alaska’s election that is contrary to the public interest.”Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the Senate even if she won.“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.”Trump’s Attorney General Todd Blanche has accused the Democrats of ‘cheating’ but has not said if criminal prosecutions would be forthcoming (Reuters)Later, as he rallied for Republican Sen. Darline Graham, Trump said he felt Peltola “actually should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted.”Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told journalists, “I think they should be prosecuted.”Alaska’s Republican governor has also ordered an investigationHe earlier had posted on social media that “Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done.”Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Fox News interview on Wednesday that 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.Vice President JD Vance on Thursday did not go as far as Trump did in calling for Peltola to be prosecuted, but said he supported a probe into possible election fraud.Vice President JD Vance has also said that he supports an investigation into the Alaska race (AFP/Getty)“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.”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 by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes.”Peltola dismisses the claims as a ‘distraction’“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.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.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.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.In Juneau, independent Carter Bancroft said he voted for Peltola on Thursday.“I’m very certain in the candidates I wanted to vote for and I wanted to vote for Mary Peltola,” he said.But he said the latest claims have bothered him.State Supreme Court OK’d the other Sullivan on the ballotHe worries they give “ammunition” to Trump and others to attack Peltola or other Democratic candidates.“And I think I’m bothered by shenanigans on either side,” Bancroft said, especially actions intended “to confuse things or try to trick people.”John Delgado, an independent who leans Republican, said he has “warmed up” to Sen. Sullivan, especially in light of the recent claims.He agrees that Peltola should drop out of the race.The situation in Alaska isn't that unusual.Political parties often support extra candidates on ballots to try to pull votes from their rivals.If state courts allow it, legal experts say, the federal government has no role in challenging the results.In Ohio's Senate race, Republicans have been tied to an effort to boost a socialist on the ballot who would pull votes from the Democratic candidate challenging Sen. Jon Husted.