At the time the subpoenas were delivered, the investigation had already cost half a million dollars and involved a team of 20 people, three covert vehicles and a private plane, according to Joshua E. Doyle, an F.B.I. agent who in an application to work as the executive director of the Florida Bar revealed details about running the investigation.
After he was hired, Mr. Doyle was interviewed by a Florida Bar newspaper that published a story including details of the investigation , which were later removed. But The Tallahassee Democrat reported on the original story, and The New York Times obtained a copy of it from the Florida Bar on Friday.
How long the investigation might continue is not known. David W. Moyé, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Tallahassee, said Friday that the United States attorney will now have to consider whether any action should be taken before the November election. Prosecutors could be accused of influencing an election if they file charges beforehand. They could also be criticized for allowing it to drag on.
“In the Justice Department, I’m sure they’ve been burning some midnight oil up there, because now they do have a viable candidate and they have an investigation,” Mr. Moyé said.
Steven J. Vancore, a Tallahassee-based Democratic pollster, said Republicans will use the investigation as a potent attack against Mr. Gillum regardless of whether he is implicated.
“They will certainly weaponize those headlines and those inquiries against Mayor Gillum, irrespective of any outcome,” he said. “Mayor Gillum has to show that not only has he been cooperative with the F.B.I., that he’s been helping root out any corruption. If he can make that case, then the public will go, ‘O.K., asked and answered.’”
And if any charges are filed before November?
“If they came out tomorrow and indict just a few people that are not him, does that benefit him? Sure,” Mr. Vancore said. “He can say, ‘They spent a year investigating, and I was not named.’”
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