The Justice Department on Friday acknowledged that its investigation into Democrats who recruited a decoy candidate to run in the Alaska Senate race may never yield criminal charges, defending an inquiry that critics dismissed as a political stunt in the lead-up to Election Day.
Michael J. Heyman, the U.S. attorney for Alaska, told reporters during a news conference in Anchorage that his office had spent the past few months quietly investigating whether Democratic operatives violated federal laws in recruiting a candidate with the same name to oppose the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan.
Mr. Heyman said the inquiry kicked into high gear after The New York Times reported that aides to Mary Peltola, Mr. Sullivan’s Democratic opponent, helped enlist the other candidate, Dan J. Sullivan. But he declined to say what crimes — if any — were being investigated.
“You’re assuming that crime was committed,” he told a reporter. “I’m not going into detail of what types of crimes we’re investigating.”
Democrats and former officials have accused the department of pursuing a political goal in the guise of a legal one: to publicize a scheme, sordid but not illegal under state law, to energize Republicans ahead of next week’s midterm elections.
Mr. Heyman said his office was acting in good faith to protect the integrity of the election.
He added that he was working closely with the F.B.I. in the state and around the country. But he struggled to explain why the report by The Times appears to have resulted in the expansion of the investigation, or why he made the announcement days before a hotly disputed election.
“When credible information comes out, we are committed to pursuing that information,” he said.
It is unclear what jurisdiction federal prosecutors have in the Alaska case, although officials in Washington have suggested it could be predicated on the existence of an as-yet-unspecified criminal conspiracy.
Karen Loeffler, a veteran prosecutor who served as Alaska’s U.S. attorney from 2009 to 2017, questioned the value of a criminal investigation. “There is no crime here that I can see,” she said.
“It may be somewhat underhanded. It may bother some people. But recruiting people you think will take votes away from somebody isn’t even unusual,” she added. “Nobody is going to be confused by this ballot. It makes very clear that there is incumbent senator Dan Sullivan and this other guy.”
Last week, the Trump administration asked a federal court to block the certification of the election in Alaska if Mr. Sullivan narrowly lost, the first time the Justice Department had sought to preemptively intervene in an election since the late 1960s.
In filings Friday, administration lawyers sought to force election workers to “preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan” in case of a future investigation. It is not clear how or if the state elections division would do that.
President Trump made clear last week that he had personally demanded the lawsuit. “I’m the one that said do it,” he told reporters as he landed in Florida for a campaign rally.
Judge Sharon L. Gleason of U.S. District Court in Alaska, who is presiding in the case, is considering a motion from Ms. Peltola’s campaign, national Democrats and the state elections office, which is overseen by Alaska’s Republican lieutenant governor, to dismiss the suit. She could rule as early as this weekend.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy of Alaska, a Republican, has demanded a criminal investigation, and has suggested he may try to block certification of election results, even as state lawyers fight the civil suit. His tenure ends Dec. 7, so a protracted legal fight could leave the future of any state involvement to the next governor.
On Friday, before Mr. Heyman appeared before reporters, the Trump administration appeared to soften its legal stance, shifting from a focus on potentially blocking certification of a potential Peltola victory to the request that elections officials “preserve and segregate all ballots.”
The administration did not indicate how it would conduct an investigation of anonymous ballots.
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