Alaska DOJ holds a press conference with FBI Anchorage

[0:00] We want to say that what we've learned recently has been deeply troubling, both from a larger [0:05] perspective and me as a resident of Alaska. [0:10] I am a voter in Alaska, every Alaskan deserves a fair election, and they're going to get [0:15] one. [0:18] If you're an Alaskan voter, cast your ballot for the individual that you intend to support, [0:25] federal and state law enforcement, including both the Alaska State Troopers on my right [0:30] and the FBI on my left, are working to make sure that your vote counts in a way that you [0:35] meant and intended it to count. [0:39] Anyone who tries to illegally deceive voters and interfere with the election will answer [0:43] for it. [0:47] We are aware of the recent New York Times reporting regarding the Petola campaign and the Democratic [0:53] Senatorial Campaign Committee that they orchestrated a sprawling conspiracy to recruit and prop up [0:59] Daniel J. Sullivan as a sham candidate, and we are taking that extremely seriously. [1:07] The Justice Department takes every allegation of this sort extremely seriously when it comes [1:13] to voter corruption or disrupting the integrity of the election process. [1:19] When credible information comes out, we are committed to pursuing that information to deceive [1:24] voters, and we will act on it. [1:27] We are acting on it intensely and swiftly, as I'll talk about in just a second. [1:34] Election integrity is belonging to every voter, regardless of party. [1:41] We have been working closely with our partners, both locally and federally, as I had mentioned, [1:48] to preserve the integrity of the election process, and this has been going on for several [1:54] months now. [1:57] It's been going on for several months, but recent reporting has obviously resulted in troubling [2:02] new revelations. [2:05] This new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska, and [2:11] I have assigned several attorneys in my office to assist in the matter as well. [2:17] Those attorneys locally are continuing to do the great work that they're doing every day [2:22] with respect to fentanyl trafficking, child exploitation, other national priorities, but [2:27] they're going to be working even harder. [2:31] As we speak, law enforcement around the country are taking investigative steps with respect to [2:38] a criminal investigation on these matters. [2:41] Because this is an ongoing investigative matter, we can't discuss the specifics of those investigative [2:46] steps and who may or may not be involved. [2:51] This protects the integrity of the investigation, and it protects those who may be the subject [2:57] or target of those investigations. [3:00] What I can tell Alaskans is that we will not let anyone or any group undermine this election. [3:10] Next, I want to ensure that there is no confusion with respect to the multiple law enforcement [3:16] and investigative steps that are taking place right now. [3:20] What I mean by that is there is both a civil investigation and a criminal investigation [3:24] that are ongoing. [3:26] Those are what we call parallel proceedings. [3:27] It's not unusual. [3:29] They are occurring simultaneously and within their own lanes. [3:33] The civil lawsuit is publicly faced and is focused on preserving the ballots versus the [3:38] criminal investigation on the other side. [3:40] Each investigation will follow facts in its own right. [3:45] On the civil side, consistent with the National Voter Registration Act, which Congress enacted in part [3:51] to protect the integrity of the electoral process, the department filed suit last week and has [3:56] filed an amended complaint adding a supremacy clause allegation. [4:02] That lawsuit seeks to protect ballots. [4:06] Nothing more for the moment. [4:08] Just protect the status quo. [4:10] So Alaska can determine whether voters were misled or if the votes for Daniel J. Sullivan could have [4:18] changed the outcome of the election. [4:21] The department is not asking the court to declare a winner or loser or change the votes in any way. [4:27] It's simply to preserve those ballots. [4:33] Within the next hour or so, the United States has a responsive brief due to the motion to dismiss, [4:39] which you will see. [4:40] But in addition, within the next hour or so, the United States is also filing a motion for [4:45] preliminary injunction with respect to the case that's pending on the civil side and is asking for [4:51] expedited discovery by Monday on the issues surrounding the election that were raised in the civil complaint. [5:00] This is all about election integrity. [5:02] I want to encourage everyone with information on whether it be the information that we know [5:08] about the Dan Sullivan issue or any other election integrity issue to contact the FBI. [5:13] And within the last 24 hours or so, we have received a number of new pieces of information that we're following on. [5:20] Anybody with additional information should contact the FBI as soon as possible. [5:25] Thank you. [5:35] Thank you. [5:36] My name is Matthew Schlegel. [5:37] I am the special agent in charge of the Anchorage FBI office serving all of Alaskans. [5:43] This is an active investigation, and again, law enforcement is limited in the specific details we can share at this time. [5:50] I want to ensure the public we will continue to quickly and aggressively follow the facts wherever they lead. [5:57] This investigation is being handled by some of the strongest law enforcement professionals in the country committed to the rule of law, [6:05] all of whom are working in coordination with our Department of Justice and committed to following the evidence. [6:12] We encourage any member of the public with information to contact the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI, [6:20] that's 1-800-225-5324, or visit tips.fbi.gov, that's tips.fbi.gov. [6:35] Thank you. [6:36] Thank you very much. [6:40] You're going to speak. [6:54] Yeah. [6:55] Can we just go? [6:56] Yeah, me. [6:59] Hi, Keeling Law from CNN. [7:02] Why have you decided to unrecuse yourself, sir? [7:05] And have you had discussions with the White House about that decision as well as the civil or criminal complaints? [7:12] Sure. [7:13] And I want to be clear that I think the term unrecuse is a little bit not accurate. [7:18] And so, no, I have not unrecused myself. [7:20] The way the process works is once there's a formal recusal in place, what can happen then there is an internal process [7:27] by which the Department of Justice can review that recusal. [7:30] The facts and circumstances that gave rise to the initial recusal are no longer applicable, [7:36] that being as CNN, I think, specifically reported that I was being considered for a judicial nomination position. [7:42] The White House has nominated someone else for that position, and so therefore the facts and circumstances have changed, [7:48] and they have decided to rescind, not unrecuse, but it's called rescinding that recusal so that I can take part in the process now. [7:56] And the second part of the question, sir, have you had discussions with the White House about that decision [8:00] as well as a civil or criminal complaint? [8:02] I have not had any discussions with the White House about those complaints. [8:05] I've been in this case now for all of about 24 hours, and so, no, I haven't had any of those discussions. [8:09] How about anyone else from your office? [8:10] Not that I'm aware of. [8:11] Mr. Heyman, you said this investigation has been going on for months. [8:17] A lot of us in this room here in Alaska consider this the most open secret. [8:23] Many people didn't even entertain that the Sullivan campaign was real, but now you guys are citing the New York Times report [8:29] as kind of propelling this press conference today and the urgency now. [8:33] Did New York Times reporters have more information than federal investigators, and what took you guys so long to get to where we are today? [8:39] Sure. I'm not going to comment on the volume of the information that we had, [8:44] but what I can tell you is my first assistant, Tom Bradley here, who's standing next to me, [8:48] he has been leading the investigation from this office for several months now. [8:54] Tom here is, we were just talking about this, he's a 49-year veteran, both starting off as law enforcement [9:00] and then also as assistant United States attorney, and so there's been a tremendous amount of activity that's been going on. [9:06] Of course, when the New York Times article hit, that's additional information that accelerated what we've been doing. [9:12] Can you briefly just break down the parallel in the civil and the criminal investigation? [9:16] Sure. There are specific secrecy rules that we have to abide by under the criminal investigation, right? [9:23] And so to the extent that there are people on the civil side doing an independent investigation, engaging in civil discovery, [9:29] and to the extent that there is a criminal investigation, that information is not shared with the civil side. [9:36] There are secrecy rules that are in place, but this is not something that's unusual. [9:40] We honor that parallel proceeding, and we'll continue to do so. [9:43] I have stories from all the CBS. [9:47] Mr. Henry, also, we're less than four down. Why not wait until after the election? [9:57] Sure. I mean, to begin with, we're not escalating anything except to the extent that a new article came out, right? [10:03] This has been going on, you know, sort of quietly for several months with the intent not to escalate anything, [10:09] but to the extent that there are allegations that are made on the eve of the investigation that can go to the heart of the election integrity, [10:16] we are going to take it seriously even if it is a few days before the election. [10:20] The crime? [10:22] Look, I mean, you're assuming that there is a crime being committed. [10:26] Right, and that's what we do, is we investigate whether a crime has been committed under several theories, [10:30] so I'm not going to comment on what those theories are, and I'm also not going to put the cart before the horse. [10:35] I'm not making any assumptions on whether a crime has been committed or not. [10:39] That's why we are conducting that thorough investigation. [10:41] Okay, we're going to add to Natmers. [10:44] Tony Hayman, you mentioned that your office is aware of the New York Times report, but my question is, [10:50] that report is based off of 12 anonymous sources. Are you inclined to believe the facts in that report? [10:56] I'm not going to talk about what I'm inclined to believe. We're going to let the investigation run its course. [11:00] Yeah, Nat Herz with the Anchorage Press. [11:03] The lawsuit that DOJ has filed here, the legal underpinning for it, the National Voter Registration Act, [11:13] is a really specific statute that has to do with voter registration, and sort of legal experts have really dismissed the basis for this case, [11:22] particularly that the language you guys are citing is actually from the preamble of the legislation, [11:28] which has no real binding legal power. One of the interveners in the case asking for sanctions against your attorneys [11:38] for this being a frivolous lawsuit, so can you help sort of draw out for people who are in the public [11:45] who may not have sort of intimate legal understanding, like, how do you guys actually have a case here? [11:51] I think I'm going to give you a truncated version of that answer, which is I'm not going to litigate that case, [11:56] you know, in front of the media. As we speak, there are motions that are being drafted and responded to. [12:01] Judge Gleason will address those in due course, and I think a lot of that will be resolved in the next week or so. [12:07] Steve Patterson with NBC News. Can you talk about what kind of jurisdiction of a federal investigation, [12:16] despite this being a state's election and one in which the Supreme Court has already made a ruling? [12:22] Yeah, I think I've answered that before. I'm not going to go into the details about what specific crimes we're investigating. [12:27] Just what types of crimes might be alleged, or which types might you be looking into? [12:31] Well, I mean, it's been widely spoken about conspiracy theories and election integrity, but I'm not going to go into the specifics. [12:38] What's the relevant statute? [12:41] What's the relevant criminal statute? [12:44] Excuse me. [12:46] I just wonder where your thoughts are on the fact that there's a lot of media here, and this has been going on since June, [12:50] and it's taken the media, the New York Times, and this has been five months, and we all knew about it, really. [12:58] I'm not going to comment on, you know, what the media has or hasn't been doing, but I can say that it is serious now, [13:03] and you've certainly got our attention. Like I said, there is a surge in FBI resources as well as resources in this office [13:10] to make sure that the election integrity remains in place. [13:14] Thank you all. [13:22] Turn. You're going to do it live. Or do you want me to pop over there? [13:38] Incredible. [13:45] I can hear you. I can hear you. Hi, Emily. I can hear you. Okay. Anamaya. Chloe's, Anamaya. Chloe's still right there.