“If this isn’t an investigation,” Duffy said, “there is no such thing.”

The Democrats’ claim that Rounds is ineligible for public office is supported, Duffy said, by South Dakota Codified Law 22-12A-10. That law is in the same chapter as the falsification-of-evidence law and says: “The public office of any public officer or employee who is convicted of violating any provision contained in this chapter is forfeit. Moreover, such public officer or employee is forever disqualified from holding any public office in this state.”

That law, however, might apply only to state offices and not federal ones, such as a U.S. Senate seat. The Congressional Research Service has opined that a state has no say in qualifications for federal elected office. As for U.S. Senate rules, a felony conviction does not automatically disqualify a senator from serving, but the Senate could vote to expel a member who is convicted of a felony. Rounds, of course, is only a candidate for Senate and has not been formally charged with anything, let alone convicted.

Duffy, when asked about the applicability of the state law to federal office, said he considers the law applicable unless a judge says otherwise.