Sullivan and Peltola trade Epstein donor attacks that outrun the record

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan's campaign released an ad Wednesday saying he voted to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files while Mary Peltola took "huge checks from Epstein's associates."

It is the latest turn in a fight that has run since summer. Peltola, his Democratic challenger, released her own ad in August saying Sullivan cast "the deciding vote" to keep the files hidden and received nearly $10,000 from "two known Epstein associates" shortly afterward.

Each campaign is trying to tie the other candidate to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution and died in a federal jail in New York in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

An Alaska News review of Senate records, Federal Election Commission filings and the Justice Department's Epstein files found that each side's account of Sullivan's votes leaves out part of the Senate record, and that both candidates have taken money from people whose contact with Epstein is documented. Both sides' donor tallies also claim more than the records show. The "more than $140,000" figure Sullivan's campaign circulated counts $50,700 from three Peltola donors Alaska News didn't find in the files. The "nearly $10,000" in Peltola's ad rests on two donors whose names appear in the files, though neither is shown in contact with Epstein.

Appearing in the files, or having had contact with Epstein, is not evidence of wrongdoing.

The votes

Peltola's "deciding vote" line refers to a Sept. 10, 2025, roll call. The Senate voted 51-49 to table, or set aside, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's amendment to the annual defense bill, which would have directed the Justice Department to publish Epstein records. Sullivan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski both voted to table it. Republicans Josh Hawley and Rand Paul joined every Democrat and independent in voting no.

Had any one of the 51 senators on the winning side switched, the vote would have tied, and the vice president could have broken the tie. The record doesn't single out Sullivan's vote as the deciding one.

Sullivan's claim that he "voted to force" the files' release leaves out that vote. Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025, days after President Donald Trump changed course and said House Republicans should vote for it. The House approved it 427-1, and the Senate passed it by unanimous consent, meaning no senator objected. Trump signed it Nov. 19.

In a statement after the Sept. 10 vote, Sullivan said the Justice Department should release "as much information as possible on Epstein's horrific crimes" and that Schumer had "tried slipping the Epstein provision" into the defense bill, as reported by FactCheck.org. Murkowski cosponsored the Senate version of the bill; Sullivan didn't. Sullivan's campaign said his position on the files has been "clear and consistent" and that he supported the law.

Peltola left Congress in January 2025 and didn't vote on either measure.

The donors

The first donor attack Alaska News found came July 31, when the Alaska Democratic Party said Sullivan had received "almost $10,000 in campaign cash from Jeffrey Epstein associates," reposting a report from MeidasTouch, a progressive news outlet. Peltola’s campaign made the same charge on two campaign websites by early August. Sullivan's campaign answered Aug. 10 by circulating excerpts from an article in Townhall, a conservative news site, that listed 13 Peltola donors. "All told, Mary Peltola has taken more than $140,000 in donations from Epstein associates," Townhall wrote.

Both attacks start with real transactions: $144,767 that the 13 people gave Peltola's House and Senate committees since 2022, and $9,193 from the two contributions behind the Democrats' figure. The second number combines an $8,500 gift to a joint fundraising committee with $693 given directly to Sullivan's campaign. Alaska News sorted the donors on both lists by what the Epstein records show about each one, then ran the same checks on both candidates' other donors.

The $140,000 list. Of the $144,767, $45,600 came from five people whose contact with Epstein or his staff after his 2008 plea is documented.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who gave Peltola's House campaign $9,900 in 2023 and 2024, exchanged emails with Epstein from 2013 to 2018. In November 2014, Epstein wrote that he had arrived at his private island "with Reid Hoffman and Joi Ito in tow," and his staff arranged for his pilot to fly the two men to Massachusetts the next day. Hoffman has said he went to the island once, to help raise money for MIT, as reported by Business Insider.

Restaurant-guide founders Tim and Nina Zagat, who gave $13,000 in 2024 and 2026, are listed on a 2002 pilot log for two flights on Epstein's plane, and emails show both writing to Epstein or his assistant after his plea, Tim Zagat as late as 2018. Melinda French Gates, who gave $16,500 from 2022 to 2026, is listed with Bill Gates on Epstein's schedule for a 2013 dinner at his house. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who gave $6,200 in 2022 and 2024, has the thinnest tie of the five: In 2013, he answered an invitation from Epstein's assistant, then his office declined it.

The rest of the list is thinner. Five donors who gave about $48,500 appear only as names in lists or other people's emails, and for one of them, records don't establish that the donor is the person named. Steven Spielberg, for example, is on a 2018 Arizona State University invitation list found in Epstein's files; the record doesn't show that he communicated with Epstein or attended. And $50,700 came from three donors who list the same Fort Worth office address as TPG co-founder David Bonderman. Alaska News found none of the three in the files. Bonderman, who appears in them only by name, gave Sullivan's campaign $2,500 in 2022.

Peltola's campaign said Saturday that it had donated the Zagats' 2026 contributions, which total $10,000, to Tundra Women's Coalition. It said the earlier gifts from Hoffman, the Zagats, French Gates and Schmidt went to her House campaign before the Epstein files were released, and that committee has since shut down and can't give money away. The campaign said French Gates, who met Epstein in 2013, has "no legitimate or consequential ties" to him.

Sullivan's campaign ad and statement repeated the $140,000 figure and Townhall's list, including the three donors Alaska News didn't find in the files. A spreadsheet it provided lists those three as Bonderman's relatives.

The $10,000 list.

KKR co-founder Henry Kravis is listed in Epstein's contact book and in a 2012 email in which Epstein named him among several investors. Howard Lorber is mentioned in messages between Epstein and others, including a 2018 message in which Epstein listed "lorber" among Donald Trump's "heavy hitter friends." FEC filings don't show whether the Howard Lorber who gave Sullivan's campaign $693 is that man. Alaska News found no direct exchange between Epstein and either man. Peltola's campaign confirmed the ad refers to Kravis and Lorber. It pointed to Kravis' listing in Epstein's contact book and to a 2016 email in which Epstein told a correspondent, "howard lorber is your best bet if you want to do govt."

Kravis' $8,500 went to Sullivan Victory, a joint fundraising committee that also raises money for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sullivan's leadership PAC and a super PAC, Last Frontier PAC. Sullivan's campaign received $7,000 of it. Counting only money that reached each candidate's campaign, as this story does for both, the Kravis and Lorber gifts total $7,693.

Peltola's ad says the money came "shortly after" Sullivan's vote. Kravis gave about seven months after it and Lorber about nine and a half months after it, both after Congress had passed the law requiring the files' release. A donor with Lorber's name and Miami Beach street address also gave Peltola's campaign $500, on July 11. Peltola's campaign said it didn't solicit that gift and is donating it to Tundra Women's Coalition.

Beyond the lists. Alaska News ran the same test on both candidates' other donors, looking for records of contact with Epstein or his staff after his 2008 plea, not just a name in the files. It searched the files for every donor who gave either candidate $1,000 or more, but only the strongest matches were checked by hand, so it isn't a full count. The search found more donors with documented contact on both sides. On Peltola's side, they include two who gave her campaigns $4,600; emails from Epstein's assistant list a call with one in 2014 and a breakfast with the other in 2015. On Sullivan’s side, they include, among others, five who gave his campaign $17,000.

One is Leon Black, the Apollo Global Management co-founder, who gave $2,800 in 2019 and whom the Alaska Democratic Party began citing in September. A review commissioned by a committee of Apollo's board and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission found that Black paid Epstein $158 million from 2012 through 2017 for tax, estate-planning and other advice. The review found no evidence Black was involved in Epstein's crimes, and Black told reviewers he regretted working with Epstein. On Sept. 16, the House held him in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas in its Epstein investigation.

Black's wife and son, whose own emails or meetings with Epstein are in the records, gave $4,800 in 2019 and 2026. Bill Gates, who gave $6,600 in 2023, scheduled a meeting with Epstein in 2011, is listed for the 2013 dinner and emailed with him in 2014. Elon Musk, who gave $2,800 in 2020, discussed visiting Epstein's island with him in 2012 and 2013; no record Alaska News reviewed shows he went.

Reports covering activity through July 29, which predate the Zagat pledge, show neither campaign refunding any donor on either list, or Black, Gates or Musk.

The other claims

Peltola's ad also claims that Sullivan took money from "a political insider arrested on charges of sex trafficking." That person is Craig Valdez, who was Republican state Sen. George Rauscher's chief of staff, as reported by FactCheck.org. In February, federal prosecutors charged Valdez with sex trafficking and other child exploitation offenses. He pleaded not guilty, and the case has no documented connection to Epstein. Valdez had given Sullivan's campaign $253.10. A week after his arrest, the campaign gave the same amount to the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, months before Peltola's ad.

Sullivan's ad also says "cashing in as DC lobbyists" is "exactly what Mary Peltola did after Alaskans fired her." The law firm Holland & Hart hired Peltola in March 2025 as senior director of Alaska affairs on its Federal Affairs team, based in Anchorage. The firm cited her "strong relationships within federal agencies, Congress, Alaska state government, and Native communities." Her Senate financial disclosure lists $342,400 in salary from the firm for March 2025 through January 2026, for "Advisory Services."

The firm's federal lobbying reports for 2025 and 2026 list eight lobbyists, and Peltola isn't among them. Federal law generally requires a person to be listed as a lobbyist after more than one lobbying contact for a client and when lobbying activities account for at least 20% of the time that person spends serving the client over three months. For her first year out of office, ethics law barred Peltola from contacting Congress for clients with intent to influence official action. House ethics guidance allowed her to advise clients behind the scenes and contact executive-branch officials. That year ended Jan. 3. Her job at the firm ended that month, her disclosure shows.

The record shows a government-affairs job at a firm with a lobbying practice. It doesn't show whether Peltola personally lobbied. Peltola's campaign said she worked in an advisory role, followed ethics rules for former members of Congress and "never lobbied the federal government."

Alaskans vote Nov. 3.

How Alaska News did this

The money. Alaska News downloaded every report that Peltola’s House and Senate campaigns and Sullivan’s campaign filed electronically with the FEC, Peltola’s from 2022 and Sullivan’s from 2019, through the pre-primary reports covering activity through July 29. It also checked Sullivan’s donors from 2013 through 2018, using FEC records that for most of that period are transcriptions of paper filings. The story counts only money that reached each candidate’s campaign, not spending by outside groups.

The search. Every donor either side named, and every other donor who gave either candidate $1,000 or more, was searched in a third-party text index of the Epstein records released by the Justice Department and the House Oversight Committee. A match was only a lead. Many were news clippings, company names or different people with the same name, so only the strongest were checked by hand.

The test. A donor counts as having documented contact if the records show an email exchange with Epstein or his staff after his 2008 plea, or a call or meeting set up with them. A name on a list or in other people’s emails doesn’t count. Every record cited in the story was checked in the Justice Department’s original file.