State and federal prosecutors today announced no criminal charges will be filed in the “Tapegate” scandal that’s rocked Iowa’s U-S Senate race between Democrat Tom Harkin and Republican Greg Ganske. Des Moines police, an F-B-I agent and assistant Polk County Attorneys conducted the investigation into the Harkin campaign’s secret taping of a Ganske fundraising meeting. Polk County Attorney John Sarcone says the group “unanimously” agreed no laws were broken. Sarcone, a democrat who is elected to the job of County Attorney, has a sister who works in Senate Democrat Leader Tom Daschle’s office. Republicans have complained Sarcone shouldn’t have been investigating the case. Sarcone says in the 12 years he’s held the office, he’s made decisions involving people from every walk of life. He says the guiding principle in deciding to charge someone with a crime is always whether or not they broke the law. Sarcone says it’s “mean spirited” to bring his sister into the issue, and the decision, he says, was based on the law. Sarcone says 750 invitations were sent out by the Ganske campaign, and Brian Conley — the man who secretly taped the meeting, was invited and didn’t break any laws.Sarcone says the Harkin campaign’s passing of the tape to a reporter didn’t cause injury because it’s essentially reporting the truth of what went on during the Ganske meeting. Investigators interviewed Ganske and Harkin campaign staff, but not Conley — the taper — or Rafael Ruthchild, the Harkin campaign worker who’s been identified by Senator Harkin as the brainchild of the “caper.” Sarcone says Harkin was not interviewed either, because they determined they were looking at the conduct of the person doing the taping, and if that person didn’t violate the law, then no one else violated the law.The U-S Attorney in Illinois, who was appointed to the job by the Republican President, has also determined “there was no violation of federal law” and “no further action will be taken.”
