FBI Contacts Donors to Alaska Senate Candidate Dan J. Sullivan as Federal Inquiry Widens

The FBI has begun contacting donors to Dan J. Sullivan, a U.S. Senate candidate in Alaska who shares a name with Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, asking about potential deception, as federal authorities stepped up their investigation. Agents have reached donors in at least two remote Alaska communities and a couple in Massachusetts, according to reporting by the Associated Press. An Anchorage-based FBI agent visited a boat dealership in Petersburg, a small fishing community reachable only by air or water, where the candidate lives, and left a business card for Charles Flint.

Flint said he has known the candidate for years as a respected teacher and musician. He gave $500 over the summer to what he saw as a long-shot campaign. He said the agent asked his son, who works at the dealership, whether Flint felt he had been misled about whom he was backing. Flint said he did not feel misled and saw no confusion. The visits followed federal confirmation of a criminal probe of the candidate. The Justice Department also pushed Friday for a court order to isolate certain Alaska ballots to investigate potential voter confusion.

The right-leaning outlets, Newsmax and the New York Post, lead with the widening FBI investigation. The Post's headline uses the label "Decoy Dan" and stresses the federal escalation, the criminal probe and the Justice Department's ballot request. It also gives Flint's account in detail. Newsmax carries the AP headline unchanged, focusing on the hometown donor visit. MS NOW, on the left, leads with the donors: at least three who received visits told it they personally know the other Dan Sullivan and meant to give to his campaign. Both sides report the FBI outreach to donors. They differ in tone and emphasis: the right frames it as a probe, while the left foregrounds donors' denials of confusion. The AP matches the right's wording.