Please always remember the Protection Racket Media style guide for reporting on political scandals. If it involves Republicans, report the scandal. If it involves Democrats, report on Republicans' pouncing, seizing, overreaching, et cetera, ad infinitum.
The New York Times deviated from the style guide twice this week already, but thankfully, both Politico and CNN have muscled up to enforce it properly. With Democrat Mary Peltola facing potential criminal charges over a conspiracy to defraud Alaska voters – and with evidence supplied by the NYT, no less – Politico opted to cover this as a case of Trump administration legal seizing, so to speak. Late yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion alleging that Peltola and the campaign lied to the court, which Politico called "misled" and "dissembling":
The Justice Department is accusing Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee of misleading a federal court about their knowledge of efforts to recruit a candidate with a name similar to incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
The Trump administration revised its federal lawsuit over the issue Thursday to incorporate allegations in a New York Times report that Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC recruited a retired teacher, Daniel J. Sullivan, to enter the Senate race in a bid to draw votes away from the incumbent.
The amended complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, contends that Peltola’s campaign committee, Alaskans for Mary, and the DSCC dissembled in an Oct. 23 court filing where they contended they didn’t possess enough information to know whether the political novice was engaged in a “good-faith candidacy” or sought to get on the ballot “to confuse or mislead.”
“Apparently emboldened by the success of their reported plot to deceive Alaskan voters, Alaskans For Mary and the DSCC appear to have turned to misleading this Court,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote.
Oh, they did a little more than “dissemble,” the DOJ argues in this new motion. They allege that the campaign and the DSCC flat-out intended to mislead the court through intentional and material misrepresentations:
40. In their proposed answer, a certified pleading under Rule 11, Alaskans For Mary and the DSCC answered, in relevant part that, “Proposed Intervenors lack knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief about the truth or falsity of the allegation concerning the purposes of Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy and therefore deny any allegation about those purposes.” ECF No. 5-1 ¶ 22.
41. But the New York Times has reported that Alaskans For Mary and the DSCC were well aware of the purposes of Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy: they orchestrated his sham campaign for the purpose of misleading Alaskan voters and getting Peltola elected.
The motion then offers 10 quotes from the New York Times report that rebut the original representations to the court that the DSCC and Mary Peltola were completely ignorant of the scheme. The motion quotes heavily from the NYT article, which has a certain level of irony for relying on the NYT as an authoritative and reliable source. Among the quotes are bombshells that would make clear the level of falsehoods presented to the court in the earlier motions from Peltola and the DSCC:
b. “based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory.”
c. The plot, “internally called the ballot composition project,” “involved the Peltola campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.” ...
e. “Text messages viewed by The Times show officials with the D.S.C.C. and the Peltola campaign communicating for months about the project.” ...
g. “Throughout the spring, the campaign swapped leads with the D.S.C.C. on potential candidates and continued to participate in efforts to shape the ballot.”
That's more than just dissembling. The motion alleges that the Peltola campaign and the DSCC lied to the court, a move that may have more legal consequences than the Two Dans Sullivan project itself. There is still some debate whether the plot constitutes actual fraud at either the state or federal level, or is just an egregiously scummy dirty trick that only carries potential political consequences. Lying to a court, however, is definitely a crime, not to mention a violation that could result in disbarment for the attorneys involved.
Proving that is another matter, of course. However, the DOJ seems very motivated to develop that evidence, and to develop it rapidly:
BREAKING: DOJ has issued 30+ subpoenas in the last 24 hours as part of criminal investigation into how Dan J. Sullivan appeared on the Alaska ballot and what potential coordination there was w/ the Peltola campaign, DOJ sources tell colleague @davidspunt
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) October 29, 2026
Wonderful thing, subpoenas.
With all that in mind, how would we expect the Protection Racket Media to cover the corruption and fraud of Mary Peltola and the DSCC? CNN's Dana Bash provides the usual model of coverage ... Trump Trump Trump:
This is how Dana Bash led off her 'reporting' today on the Democrats' 'Dan Sullivan' election scheme in Alaska. "Unsurprisingly, [Trump] seized on the new reporting." Literally did the meme. https://t.co/s1jOSRWSHw
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 29, 2026
That's how it became a meme.
What happens next? Originally, the DOJ wanted a federal court to intervene if the fraud resulted in a loss for incumbent Dan Sullivan. That seemed like a lost cause, but with these recent developments, a federal court may want to take a closer look at the bad faith exhibited by the respondents and act accordingly.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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