DOJ sends target letters to about 20 Democrats, including Marc Elias, in the Alaska 'Decoy Dan' probe

The Justice Department has sent target letters to about 20 Democrats, among them election lawyer Marc Elias and an official at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in its criminal investigation into how a second Dan Sullivan got onto Alaska's Senate ballot, The New York Times reported Tuesday. ABC News, citing sources, reports a new round of subpoenas in the same case. It isn't clear when the letters went out. The Justice Department declined to comment.

A target letter tells someone that prosecutors see them as a likely subject of charges. Nobody has been charged. Investigators are looking at possible donor fraud and conspiracy tied to the candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan, who shares a name with Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, and at whether Democrats recruited or funded him to pull votes from the senator in his race against Democrat Mary Peltola. The DSCC and Peltola's campaign deny any role. Dan J. Sullivan says he got in on his own.

Trump said on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning that Elias "should go to jail." Elias answered on X: "This is not normal and yet here we are." On Sunday a federal judge threw out a separate DOJ lawsuit over Alaska's ballot certification. The department says it will appeal.