At least three donors to Daniel J. Sullivan — the Alaska Senate candidate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent and whose candidacy is at the center of controversy over an alleged ballot-spoiling scheme — received visits from FBI agents at their remote Alaska homes in the last three days.

The visits suggest a widening federal investigation into the controversial candidacy, fueling fears among some Alaskans that the Trump administration is poised to question the election results in the event Democratic challenger Mary Peltola defeats Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan. The senator himself said Sunday that he would accept the election results, even if he loses.

Paul Johnsen, a resident of Petersburg, told MS NOW that he was visited by two employees of the FBI at his home on Saturday morning. He said the agents told him they were there to “investigate a fraud” and asked  him whether he had, in fact, intended to donate to Daniel J. Sullivan, as opposed to the senator.

Johnsen said he told the agents he did intend to donate to the man he calls “Petersburg Dan” as opposed to Sen. Sullivan, who has earned the nickname “Ohio Dan” because he is not Alaska-born.

Johnsen personally knows Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who also lives in Petersburg, a small and isolated coastal community in southeastern Alaska. He served on the board of a local lighthouse with Sullivan’s wife.

Shortly after Johnsen affirmed that he knew where his money was going, he said the agents ended the conversation, which lasted roughly three minutes. The agents made no mention of any allegation of wrongdoing by Johnsen or any other person, other than their reference to investigating a fraud.

The FBI did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment on its agents paying visits to Alaska residents.

Rebecca Himschoot, an Independent state representative in the Alaska State Legislature who represents Petersburg and the surrounding region, told MS NOW that a different constituent reported being visited by two FBI agents in connection with their donation to Daniel J. Sullivan’s campaign.

The constituent — who lives in Sitka, another remote coastal community about 91 miles from Petersburg — reported a similar interaction, with two FBI agents asking if they knew “which Dan Sullivan” they had donated money to, Himschoot said. When the constituent responded that they were aware they had donated to Daniel J. Sullivan, the agents ended the conversation and left.

The constituent, Himschoot said, “found it alarming and concerning.” MS NOW did not speak to the constituent directly, but did review photographs of the FBI special agents’ identification badges taken by the constituent and shared with Himschoot.

Petersburg and Sitka are part of Alaska’s coastal Southeast, where small communities are not connected by roads and residents typically travel by boat or plane. Himschoot said she found it remarkable that the FBI appears to have devoted the resources necessary to send two agents to such a remote place for such brief and, in her view, seemingly pointless interviews.

“I would like someone to tell me what they’re investigating,” Himschoot said. “No one has produced a federal code or state law that was allegedly violated. Those agents could be solving human trafficking cases.”

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the Peltola campaign, along with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, actively worked to recruit Alaskans named Daniel Sullivan to enter the race in order to confuse voters and draw votes away from the incumbent senator. Peltola and her campaign have denied involvement in or knowledge of the scheme.

Election law experts say that such ballot-spoiling strategies, while underhanded, are not illegal.

Nevertheless, Trump has accused Peltola of election fraud and called for her prosecution and removal from the ballot. His Justice Department has filed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of the election results if Sen. Sullivan loses narrowly, and Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, has launched a separate state investigation and suggested he might withhold the paperwork formally recognizing a Peltola victory. (Certifying the election results is the job of the director of Alaska Division of Elections, a component of the office of the lieutenant governor.)

On Friday, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska, Michael Heyman, also held a press conference where he said the FBI and DOJ were “taking investigative steps with respect to a criminal investigation.” According to ABC News, the Justice Department has issued dozens of grand jury subpoenas as part of a criminal investigation into Alaska’s Senate race and how Daniel J. Sullivan became a candidate.

Many of the donors to Daniel J. Sullivan’s campaign are from the same sparsely populated southeastern region and know the candidate personally.

Juneau resident Mike Pilley, a commercial fisherman, told MS NOW that he met Sullivan more than three decades ago when both were employees of the National Forest Service. Pilley confirmed he knowingly donated to Daniel J. Sullivan’s campaign, and asked if he had been in touch with the candidate recently, Pilley said he “wrote us a nice thank-you note.” As of midday Saturday, Pilley said had not received a visit from the FBI.

By late afternoon, however, he contacted MS NOW to report that he too had received a visit from the FBI. Pilley said the agents stayed for “maybe 15 minutes” and did not leave him with anything, but “they did say they have heard the same story from all of us donors.”

Pilley said the agents were “nice enough guys” but maintained, “All of us knew exactly who we were giving to.”

Himschoot, the state legislator, who has known Daniel J. Sullivan for about two decades, said she was not surprised when he announced his candidacy, because he had long opposed the  senator’s policies and had even joked about running for his seat. Himschoot believes that, regardless of whether he was in contact with any campaigns or political operatives, the choice to run was his own.

“To insinuate that Dan J. Sullivan is not a fully formed adult making his own decisions is a little bit insulting,” she said. “Alaskans are not dumb.”

The FBI visits, alongside the large amounts of national attention and money being heaped on the senate race, have made Alaskans deeply wary of national politics.

“I can’t even begin to explain to you the exhaustion Alaskans are feeling about this,” she said. “We’re very sour right now, on all of it.”

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From MS Now.