President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Democrat Mary Peltola to be kept off the Alaska Senate ballot and prosecuted, following a New York Times report that her allies helped recruit a candidate with the same name as Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
According to CBS News US, Trump said in Truth Social posts that Peltola "shouldn’t be allowed to run" and called the matter "ELECTION FRAUD." PBS NewsHour headlines reported that Trump told reporters Peltola and the other Sullivan "should be prosecuted."
The Times obtained text messages between Peltola campaign members discussing recruiting people with the same name as Sen. Dan Sullivan, according to PBS NewsHour headlines. The messages reportedly settled on retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he was ordering an investigation into whether the Peltola campaign should face criminal charges or civil action, according to CBS News US, which cited The Washington Post. No official statement from Dunleavy is quoted in the reporting.
The Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denied involvement in the candidate recruitment effort, according to the Straits Times. The Justice Department said it intends to quickly seek information from the Peltola campaign about whether it sought an expedited ruling while possibly aware of the Times reporting, the Straits Times reported.
The Justice Department, at Trump’s request, sued to block certification of Alaska Senate results if Sen. Sullivan loses by a close margin, citing "voter confusion" from the two Sullivans on the ballot. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that Daniel J. Sullivan can stay on the ballot after a state official found his candidacy was filed to confuse or mislead voters.
Legal experts said the report would not affect the Justice Department lawsuit. Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller said the matter is now "in the hands of the voters." According to Straits Times (SG), Trump’s claim that Peltola should be removed from the race has no identified legal mechanism.
The Peltola campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post, and Daniel J. Sullivan did not respond to an AP request for comment on Wednesday. AP efforts to reach former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios, cited by the Times, were not immediately successful. The Times report itself was not available for review, so its details come through AP, CBS and Straits Times/Bloomberg summaries, and the Dunleavy investigation is reported by CBS alone.
Dunleavy’s investigation and the Justice Department’s information request to Peltola’s campaign are pending. Alaska’s ranked-choice general election is on Nov. 3, and the DOJ lawsuit on certification remains active.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.