Alaska Senate candidate gets FBI subpoena as DOJ probe closes in on spoiler-candidate scheme
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Federal prosecutors have hauled in longshot Senate candidate Gerald Heikes with a grand jury subpoena days before the election, demanding records tied to political groups amid a Justice Department investigation into alleged efforts to manufacture spoiler candidates and distort the vote.
Federal prosecutors issued a grand-jury subpoena to Gerald Heikes, a third-place Senate candidate in Alaska, just days before the midterm election. The subpoena, signed by a senior official in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, demands Heikes’s electronic and paper records concerning the campaign of Democratic nominee Mary Peltola, several political action committees and operatives linked to those groups.
Heikes, a drywall contractor from Palmer, told CNN that he was not recruited by any operative but decided to run after an unnamed individual suggested he consider a Senate bid. He said he entered the race out of personal curiosity and denied any intention of siphoning votes from other candidates.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation. Peltola has denied knowledge of any effort to recruit additional candidates. Earlier reporting indicated that newly created out-of-state PACs spent millions attacking incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski and supporting Heikes, though Heikes said he does not know who is behind the spending.
Heikes said FBI agents served the subpoena while he was working on a drywall job in a remote part of the state. He described the agents as “very polite” before they left.
The subpoena also seeks records related to the Elias Law Group, which represents both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Peltola’s campaign, and to other PACs involved in the race. CNN reported that the Justice Department has sent target letters to more than a dozen individuals it believes participated in recruiting another longshot candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.