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The GAO report had been scheduled for release earlier in the week but was delayed after Philip S. Hughes, chief of the GAO's Office of Federal Elections, flew to Miami to talk to Stans, who was attending the Miami Beach convention. At the same time, since some of the money had passed through Florida, an investigator for Florida State Attorney Richard E. Gerstein, a Democrat, served a subpoena on Stans in Miami Beach and interviewed him under oath. Also quizzed was Dahlberg, who had earlier claimed that he received the $25,000 from Andreas before the April 7 accountability deadline. But Dahlberg now conceded to the Florida authorities that he was given the money by Andreas on April 9. It was the Florida investigation that helped close some of the holes in the GAO probe.
It will now be up to Attorney General Richard Kleindienst just how hard—and how fast—the Justice Department acts on the charges. Just who might be prosecuted is also an intriguing question. Each violation of the act carries a possible penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Eleven such possible violations are noted. At the time of the violations, the Re-Election Committee was headed by Kleindienst's former Justice Department boss, John Mitchell. The committee's finance chief, Stans, apparently would bear more direct responsibility than Mitchell, as would the former C.R.P. treasurer, Hugh Sloan. Not surprisingly, top Democrats have called for Kleindienst to disqualify himself from the case and let it be turned over to a special prosecutor.