Trump Wants Opponent Jailed, Tells DOJ It's 'Their Call'

President Donald Trump said Attorney General Todd Blanche would make his own decision about whether Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola should be prosecuted, then made his own wishes very clear. At a Friday rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, Trump said Peltola "should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted," according to CNN's coverage. That's the head of the executive branch handing his attorney general a polite little suggestion about locking up a candidate who's running against a Republican senator. Nobody in the room needed a translation.

Who Has the Power

The machinery moved fast. The Justice Department has dramatically accelerated the criminal probe into whether Alaska Democrats tried to confuse voters by recruiting a candidate meant to siphon votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The top federal prosecutor in Alaska said Friday he has had no interaction with the White House about the case, adding he's been on it for roughly 24 hours. Twenty-four hours is a short runway for a probe the president is already cheering from a rally stage.

The prosecutor who had the file before him, Michael Heyman, recused himself because he was up for a federal judgeship, CNN reported Thursday. He wasn't ultimately nominated. His recusal was rescinded by DOJ leadership anyway. The people at the top didn't like the paperwork in their way, so the paperwork changed.

Who Gets Crushed

Here's where the apparatus meets an actual human being. On Friday the FBI began reaching out to donors of Dan J. Sullivan, the second candidate, asking about potential deception, according to the Associated Press. An Anchorage-based FBI agent showed up at a boat dealership in Petersburg, a small fishing community reachable only by air or water, and left a business card for Charles Flint.

Flint told the AP he has known Dan J. Sullivan for years as a respected teacher and musician. Over the summer he gave $500 to what he considered a long-shot campaign. The agent asked Flint's son, who works at the dealership, whether his father felt he had been "misled" about which candidate he was supporting.

"I don't feel like I've been misled at all," Flint said, adding he'd "let him waste his time trying to track me down." "I don't think there's any confusion," he said. He intends to rank Peltola first on his ballot, followed by Dan J. Sullivan. "Everybody knows who the incumbent is."

A retiree gives five hundred bucks to a local teacher and musician, and the federal government sends an agent to his son's workplace. The voter says he knew exactly what he was doing. The state is asking whether he was fooled anyway.

The Ballot Fight Behind the Ballot Fight

Peltola says she'd be "happy to fire" her former campaign manager again after the ex-staffer alleged Peltola knew of efforts to recruit a candidate with the same name as her Republican opponent. The allegations followed findings published Wednesday by the New York Times claiming her team orchestrated a campaign to stack the ballot against Sen. Dan Sullivan. Peltola called the conspiracy allegations "offensive" and said, "I think this is a real reflection on how deeply scared they are." She said she's still learning the details of the federal investigation. Al Jazeera reports Peltola has denied involvement and that the Department of Justice has taken legal action over the dispute.

The fallout includes lawsuits, criminal investigations and threats to block certification of the election if incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan is defeated. Alaska's mail ballot deadlines run 10 and 15 days after the election for ballots postmarked by Election Day. Ranked choice results aren't finalized until after that 15-day window if no candidate clears 50% on the first count, so a winner could take up to two weeks to determine.

Meanwhile, a CNN investigation found newly created political action committees linked to Wisconsin political consultant Thomas Datwyler are spending millions to attack Republican incumbents in Alaska and Ohio from the right while promoting longshot conservative challengers. Who is financing the spending remains unclear.

Both parties are accused of gaming the same ballot, and the voters, the ones who showed up with $500 and a plan to rank their choices, are the ones getting the knock at the door. The dark-money committees spending millions don't get a business card left at their shop.