Trump Calls for Peltola to Be Prosecuted After Report Ties Her Campaign to a Second Dan Sullivan

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola to be prosecuted and removed from the ballot, hours after The New York Times reported that members of her campaign helped recruit a second candidate named Dan Sullivan to run against the Republican incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan.

"We caught them cold, and Mary Peltola should resign from the race," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before leaving to campaign in Ohio. "I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did, and I think that the people that participated with her should." Earlier he wrote on Truth Social: "She shouldn't be allowed to run, and neither should the FAKE Dan Sullivan!" Trump named no law he believes Peltola broke, but he accused her of "fraud to the public" for her campaign's repeated denials.

What the Times found

The Times report rests on text messages between members of Peltola's campaign and on interviews with former campaign manager Elisa Rios. Campaign staff discussed recruiting people who shared the two-term Republican's name, working with a Democratic operative from Ohio, the report said. They settled on Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher in the Petersburg fishing community. He survived the state's August open primary and is one of four candidates on the Nov. 3 ranked choice ballot.

Rios told the Times that Peltola was not personally involved in the recruiting but was "definitely aware" of the effort. Rios was fired in August, and the Times said she tried to retract her comments last week.

Denials from the campaigns

Peltola's campaign again denied any role. "The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign," it said, adding that "no tweet or threat from any DC politician will keep her away from that fight." At a campaign stop, Peltola called the report a distraction.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied running at the Democrats' behest, saying in June he had no contact with Peltola's campaign: "Zero, none, zilch." The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also denied a role, though the Times reported its staffers appeared in the text exchanges.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who has endorsed Sullivan, said Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Peltola, calling what was revealed a pattern of lies and coverups. Sen. Sullivan's campaign said Peltola spent months denying any link to the scheme.

The legal fight already under way

Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Fox News that recruiting a same-name candidate "should be illegal," but he identified no crime and pointed to the administration's civil suit. The Justice Department sued on Oct. 23 to block Alaska from certifying the Senate result if Peltola wins, arguing that the second Sullivan could confuse voters.

State officials had earlier ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible as a candidacy filed to confuse voters, but the Alaska Supreme Court ruled he qualified to run. On the ballot, the senator appears as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican incumbent, and the other candidate as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. As of Monday, 46,204 ballots had been cast in Alaska, according to AP data. The race is one of a handful expected to decide Senate control, and polls show it tight. "It's a dirty campaign trick," said Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor. "But now it is in the hands of the voters, not litigation."