FBI Questions Sullivan Donors Ahead of Alaska Vote

The FBI has begun contacting donors to a Alaska Senate candidate named Dan J. Sullivan as a federal probe into the candidate widens. Agents have visited supporters in at least two remote Alaska communities and in Groton, Massachusetts. An Anchorage-based agent left a business card for Charles Flint at a boat dealership in Petersburg, where the candidate lives. Petersburg is accessible only by air or water.

Flint told the Associated Press he has known Dan J. Sullivan for years as a respected teacher and musician. He contributed $500 over the summer to what he considered a long-shot campaign, saying he knew the candidate would have expenses. Flint said the agent asked his son, who works at the dealership, whether Flint felt he had been misled about which candidate he supported. "I don't feel like I've been misled at all," Flint said, adding he had no intention of calling the agent back. He said he plans to rank Democrat Mary Peltola first on his ballot, then Dan J. Sullivan. "Everybody knows who the incumbent is," he said.

Federal officials confirmed the existence of a criminal probe over the candidate. The U.S. Department of Justice pushed Friday for a court order to isolate certain Alaska ballots to investigate potential voter confusion. Alaska U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters in Anchorage the federal investigation has been ongoing for several months. Heyman said recent reporting from The New York Times that Peltola's campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska.

Two FBI agents went to Sitka to interview another donor at their doorstep. That donor, who asked not to be named because the investigation is ongoing, said the agents asked whether the contribution had been made to the Sullivan the donor intended. The donor said the agents were scrupulously polite and emphasized the conversation was entirely voluntary. Pat Campbell of Groton, Massachusetts, said a couple of FBI agents came to her door Friday and spoke with her husband. "They said they were from the FBI and investigating fraud in election contributions," Campbell wrote in a text message. "No, we had not been defrauded. We knew to whom we had contributed."

President Donald Trump was asked about the case Saturday night at a Halloween party at his Mar-Lago estate. He called it "voter fraud at the highest level." Trump also suggested Dan J. Sullivan had gone into hiding, saying "Nobody can find him now, so he knows he's guilty." The president also suggested, without providing details, that top Democratic leaders outside the state could have been involved and that they should be prosecuted.

The developments come ahead of Tuesday's ranked choice general election in which Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. At a campaign rally in Anchorage on Friday, Peltola denied involvement in any plan to place candidates on the ballot to take votes from the incumbent senator. She called the allegations "garbage" and part of a smear campaign to suppress turnout. "I know I can beat Dan Sullivan. I do not need any help winning this race," she told volunteers at an Anchorage aviation museum.