Feds Surge Agents Into Alaska's 'Decoy Dan' Probe. The Other Dan Flew Out of Town Two Days Before the Story Broke

Alaska's top federal prosecutor stepped to a podium in Anchorage on Friday afternoon, with state troopers on one side and the FBI on the other, and said the "Decoy Dan" investigation just got a lot bigger.

"This new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska," U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman said in the press conference. "As we speak, law enforcement around the country are taking investigative steps with respect to a criminal investigation on these matters."

The "new information" is the New York Times report from Oct. 28 that aides to Democrat Mary Peltola and staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee helped recruit Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired Petersburg teacher, onto the same ballot as Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Peltola has denied any part in it. Nobody has been charged.

And the man at the center of it has left town. A resident and former student told CBS News she saw Daniel J. Sullivan on a flight from Petersburg to Anchorage on Monday, two days before the Times story ran. CBS reported that his whereabouts are not clear.

What Heyman said

"They're going to answer for it." Heyman said the criminal case has been running quietly "for several months," led by his first assistant, Tom Bradley, a 49-year veteran of law enforcement and the office. The Times story, he said, brought "troubling new revelations" and "accelerated what we've been doing." He has now assigned several more of his own attorneys to it. "Every Alaskan deserves a fair election and they're going to get one," he said. "Anyone who tries to illegally deceive voters and interfere with the election will answer for it."

He is now in charge locally. Heyman had stepped aside from the matter earlier because he was being considered for a federal judgeship. The White House nominated someone else, so the Justice Department lifted that recusal on Thursday, and he is now the lead attorney on the case in Alaska. Asked if he had talked to the White House about it, he said: "I have not had any discussions with the White House about those complaints."

Tips are coming in. Heyman said that "within the last 24 hours or so, we have received a number of new pieces of information that we're following up on." The head of the FBI's Anchorage office asked anyone who knows something to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or go to tips.fbi.gov.

What he wouldn't say. A CBS reporter asked what crime is alleged. "You're assuming that there is a crime being committed," Heyman answered. "That's what we do is we investigate whether a crime has been committed under several theories." He would not name the laws he is looking at.

Two cases, one goal

Heyman stressed there are two tracks. The criminal probe stays secret. The civil lawsuit is public: DOJ sued Alaska on Oct. 22 and amended its complaint on Oct. 29, as we reported Friday morning.

That suit asks a judge to hold off certifying the Senate result if the other Dan's votes could have decided it. "The department is not asking the court to declare a winner or loser or change the votes in any way," Heyman said. "It's simply to preserve those ballots."

He said DOJ would file a motion for a preliminary injunction Friday and ask Judge Sharon Gleason for expedited discovery by Monday, the day before the election. The state, the Peltola campaign and the DSCC have all asked her to throw the case out, and the campaign wants sanctions against DOJ's lawyers. Heyman wouldn't argue it at the podium: "I'm not going to litigate that case in front of the media."

The state is digging too. Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered Alaska's Department of Public Safety on Thursday to find out whether the scheme broke state law. His elections office had already flagged the other Dan in June for asking to use the senator's middle initial, as we reported.

Why it matters

In the August primary, Daniel J. Sullivan took 2.5%. DOJ says polls put the race within one or two points. Under Alaska's ranked-choice system, any Sullivan voter who marks the wrong Dan and skips the real one can end up helping Peltola once the other Dan is knocked out.

Think of two stores with the same name on the same street. If one was opened just to catch the other's customers, the question isn't who sold more. It's who set up the fake sign. That's what the FBI is now in Alaska to find out, four days before the vote.