Days before the midterms, federal prosecutors ordered Gerald Heikes, a longshot Senate hopeful in Alaska, to appear before a grand jury with any records he has related to political groups and other candidates in the race, according to documents reviewed by CNN.
The subpoena was sent as part of an accelerating criminal probe into whether operatives aligned with Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate, sought to recruit spoilers into the race – including another candidate who shares a name with the sitting Republican senator.
Heikes’s subpoena, dated one day after a New York Times story alleged Peltola’s campaign was linked to that effort, shows prosecutors asking for communications related to the Democrat’s campaign as well as several PACs and operatives linked to those groups. The subpoena is signed by a top leader of the civil rights division in Washington, DC, rather than by a prosecutor in Alaska.
“They want me to appear and tell them what I know and how I was recruited, but I wasn’t recruited. I just took a chance,” Heikes told CNN in an interview on Friday.
The DOJ declined to comment for this story. Peltola has denied any knowledge of efforts to recruit other candidates.
Heikes, a conservative who is now in third place in the still-undecided contest, told CNN that earlier this year an operative whose name he does not know pitched him on running for Senate.
Heikes said he had already been aiming to run for office but decided to run for Senate after that meeting.
“I did it out of fascination… I wanted to see what would happen,” Heikes said.
He added, “If they think I’m an operative, they’re wrong.”
Heikes, a drywall contractor based in Palmer, Alaska, suggested he supports Sen. Sullivan over Peltola, but also said that God initially inspired him to run for office about two decades ago when he sought to be governor. He said his intention has not been to peel votes away from any candidate in the Senate race.
Newly created PACs linked to an out-of-state political operative spent millions of dollars attacking Sen. Sullivan and supporting Heikes, CNN previously reported . Heikes said he knows nothing about who is behind that spending. Heikes has received roughly 2% of the vote in the Senate race, with an estimated quarter of votes outstanding.
Alaska has ranked choice voting , though President Trump posted that votes for Heikes and the other longshot candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., should automatically go to Sen. Sullivan. He referred to Heikes in that post as a “slug.”
“I’ve been called worse. I’m a sheet rocker. I’ve spent over 40 years in trade, so I know every curse word there is. He’s kind of lightweight,” Heikes said when asked about that post.
Heikes said FBI agents served him with the subpoena on Saturday, when he was in another part of the state, hours from his home, helping a friend hang drywall.
“They were very polite and then they left,” he said.
CNN previously reported that DOJ sent target letters to more than a dozen people it believes helped recruit Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
The recipients include the leadership of the Elias Law Group, the law firm that represents both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Peltola’s campaign, the sources said.
The subpoena to Heikes demands electronic and paper records related Peltola’s campaign and the Elias Law Group, as well as anything related to numerous PACs.
Katelyn Polantz and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.
