DOJ Sends 20 Target Letters to Democrats on Election Day
Letters regarding an Alaska ballot fraud probe arrived for Marc Elias and others as federal courts rejected administration attempts to delay certification and count mail-in ballots.
By Samir Patterson ·
The U.S. Department of Justice sent approximately 20 target letters to Democratic figures on Tuesday, informing them they are subjects in a criminal investigation into the Alaska Senate race. The letters, reported by The New York Times, arrived on Election Day and included requests for third parties to preserve records, according to NBC News.
Among the recipients is Marc Elias, a prominent election lawyer who represented Alaska Democratic nominee Mary Peltola. The Times reported that the investigation looks into possible donor fraud and conspiracy charges related to a candidate with the same name as incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. At least one official from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also received a letter.
Receiving a target letter indicates a person is a subject of a criminal probe but does not mean they have been charged with a crime. Elias, in a statement, said no one should be surprised that the administration is targeting him and his firm on Election Day.
President Donald Trump criticized Elias during an interview on Fox News on Tuesday. Trump called Elias a bad guy who should go to jail in his opinion. He stated that the Democratic Party looked all over Alaska for someone named Sullivan to put on the ballot.
The letters follow a federal judge's decision on Sunday to dismiss a DOJ lawsuit. That suit sought to delay certification of the Alaska election if Senator Sullivan lost by a margin attributed to voter confusion from the duplicate name. The DOJ is currently appealing that ruling.
On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected a DOJ request to block California from counting approximately 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters the department suggests might not be U.S. citizens. The Court rejected the request without noted dissents hours after the filing.
In a separate hearing in Washington, D.C., DOJ lawyer Kathryn Barragan told Judge Reggie Walton that the department expected to deploy 900 people to monitor polling places in all 50 states. The DOJ later said it was deploying approximately 1,000 monitors and observers, focusing primarily on urban areas that vote Democratic. Barragan noted there were about 100 monitors in 2024.
John Cusick, assistant counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, said the administration is using federal agencies to target election procedures for three reasons: to intimidate voters and officials, to create confusion about rules, and to lay groundwork for challenging post-election counts. He described the administration's actions as a constant barrage that has created a chilling effect on election workers.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta told CNBC on Monday that he and 23 other Democratic state attorneys general have been preparing for potential administration actions to suppress votes for months. Bonta said the group game-planned and war-gamed all possibilities. He noted that California law makes it a criminal offense to remove ballots from the custody of an election official.
Attorney General Todd Blanche conceded on Oct. 22 that there are scenarios where the DOJ might try to block states from certifying election results. He said it was not the department's intention to improperly interfere with elections, but he did not rule out such actions in a doomsday scenario. A bipartisan group of former election officials filed a brief on Monday arguing that increased federal pressure is part of a pattern of asserting authority over elections.
