Nine years after his bid for Louisiana governor transfixed the state and the nation, David Duke found himself in a different type of spotlight Thursday when a dozen federal agents spent most of the day searching the former Ku Klux Klan leader's Mandeville home, emerging with nearly two dozen boxes of documents related to an apparent criminal investigation of his finances.
Agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service arrived with a search warrant at about 8 a.m. and meticulously scoured Duke's split-level brick home in the quiet, middle-class Beau Rivage subdivision for more than seven hours.
Duke was not home during the search, but his personal assistant Roy Armstrong escorted the agents into the Garden Avenue home without incident. When the search ended about 3:15 p.m., agents drove away in a blue Chevrolet van with 22 boxes of records.
The agents declined to comment, but Armstrong said they took bank statements, credit card receipts, tax records and mailings for the National Organization for European American Rights, a group founded by Duke this year to promote white civil rights. Agents also removed three computer hard drives and a rifle that one of them said had been reported stolen, Armstrong said.
At one point, the agents used a crowbar to pry open a locked file cabinet, but otherwise, Armstrong said, the uninvited guests were "very orderly and polite." They even hauled away their own trash after a midday lunch of takeout pizza and soft drinks.
Spokesmen for the FBI and IRS declined to comment on the details of the search but confirmed that it is part of an ongoing investigation. The IRS agents involved were from the agency's Louisiana-Mississippi criminal division, which is based in New Orleans.
"Of course, any time the IRS serves a warrant, you can figure out what it's about," IRS agent Raymond Gregson said.
Duke's finances have been under federal scrutiny for more than a year, since a grand jury looked into Gov. Foster's $152,000 purchase of a mailing list of Duke supporters. When Duke was summoned before the grand jury in May 1999, his attorney, James McPherson, said he assumed that his client was the target of a criminal investigation.
Though Duke was never charged in the case, Foster later was fined $20,000 by the state ethics board for failing to report his purchase of the Duke list. At the time, Duke admitted he failed to pay taxes on $128,000 from the sales but said he had filed amended returns and paid up. The ongoing investigation, under the direction of federal prosecutors Jan Mann and Carter Guice, has focused on other financial matters, including Duke's fund-raising.
Duke, a one-time high-profile Klan leader and Nazi sympathizer, emerged from the political fringes in 1989 when he won a seat in the state House as a representative from Metairie. He also staged unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate and Louisiana governor's office, generating considerable national publicity by earning runoff spots in those elections. His opponent in the 1991 governor's race was Edwin Edwards, who is now facing a prison term after his recent federal racketeering conviction.
Armstrong said Duke is in Moscow, where he is peddling a book. Armstrong, who described himself as Duke's chauffeur and bodyguard, criticized Thursday's raid as a "fishing expedition."
"It's a politically motivated smear campaign to prevent Mr. Duke from running for office again," he said.
At the time of the search, two cars were parked in a carport attached to Duke's home: a black Mercedes E320 with a dealer's license plate and a red Oldsmobile with several bumper stickers, including one with a Confederate flag and the slogan "Never apologize for being white."
