DOJ Subpoenas Hit Alaska Senate Campaigns as Dunleavy Orders Probe

At least three dozen subpoenas and document-preservation requests have gone out from the Justice Department to campaign offices tied to Alaska's Senate race, a U.S. official confirmed to NBC News on Thursday. The targets include Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign and the campaign of Dan J. Sullivan, a former schoolteacher running for the same seat, according to the official.

What did the DOJ subpoena?

The federal requests, more than 36 in total per the official cited by NBC News, direct both campaigns to preserve records tied to the Senate race. The subpoenas landed the same day Alaska's governor opened a parallel state-level inquiry, putting two separate law-enforcement tracks on the same set of facts within hours of each other.

Why is Dunleavy investigating separately?

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, said overnight on X that he is directing the state Department of Public Safety to determine "whether this scheme violated Alaska's laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted." Dunleavy called the trigger for his order "disturbing new evidence" and said "anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable," per his post cited by NBC News. Austin McDaniel, the department's deputy commissioner, said Thursday the Alaska Bureau of Investigation had begun looking into the "alleged conduct" at the governor's request.

What is the alleged scheme?

Both probes trace back to a New York Times report, described by NBC News as a "bombshell," alleging that Peltola's campaign worked with allies to recruit a candidate sharing the same name as incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The goal, according to the report, was to siphon votes from the sitting senator by putting a second "Dan Sullivan" on the ballot. That name-match detail is the specific allegation both the DOJ and the state Department of Public Safety are now examining through separate channels.

What happens next?

Dunleavy has not set a timeline, saying only that "the evidence will determine what happens next." The Alaska Bureau of Investigation's review is a civil-and-criminal threshold inquiry, meaning it will first determine whether Alaska election or campaign-finance law was broken before any charges or civil penalties could follow. On the federal side, subpoenas compel the preservation and eventual production of campaign records; they do not by themselves indicate charges are imminent, but three dozen requests sent to two campaigns on a compressed pre-election timeline signal an active, broadening document-gathering phase.

Why does the dual-track investigation matter for the race?

The Senate contest now carries two open law-enforcement inquiries — one state, one federal — running concurrently in the final stretch before voters decide the seat. Because the state inquiry and the DOJ subpoenas both stem from the same underlying New York Times report, any findings from Alaska's Bureau of Investigation could inform, or be informed by, the federal document review, though the two agencies are operating under separate legal authorities and timelines, per NBC News's reporting.