Feds raid David Duke's Louisiana home

NEW ORLEANS--Nine years after his bid for Louisiana governor transfixed the state and the nation, David Duke found himself in a different type of spotlight yesterday when a dozen federal agents spent most of the day searching the former Ku Klux Klan leader's Mandeville, La., home.

Agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service arrived with a search warrant yesterday morning and meticulously scoured Duke's split-level brick home in the quiet, middle-class Beau Rivage subdivision for more than seven hours. They emerged with nearly two dozen boxes of documents related to an apparent criminal investigation of his finances.

Duke was not home, but personal assistant Roy Armstrong escorted agents into the Garden Avenue home without incident.

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.

The FBI and IRS confirmed that the search was part of an ongoing investigation. "Of course, any time the IRS serves a warrant, you can figure out what it's about," IRS Special Agent Raymond Gregson said.

Duke's finances have been under federal scrutiny for more than a year, since a grand jury looked into Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster's $152,000 purchase of a mailing list of Duke supporters. Although Duke never was charged, Foster was fined $20,000 by the state ethics board for failing to report his purchase of the Duke list. At the time, Duke admitted that he failed to pay taxes on $128,000 from the sales but said he had filed amended returns and paid up. The ongoing investigation 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 Louisiana Legislature as a representative from Metairie. He also staged unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate and Louisiana governor's office but generated considerable national publicity by earning runoff spots in those elections. His opponent in the 1991 governor's race was Edwin Edwards, 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 yesterday's raid as a "fishing expedition."

"It's a politically motivated smear campaign to prevent Mr. Duke from running for office again," he said.