-Caveat Lector-
FBI Quietly Tracks Mystery of Debate Tape
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 6, 2000; Page A13
The mystery of how confidential debate preparation materials made
their way from Texas Gov. George W. Bush's inner circle to Vice
President Gore's debate coach is not going to be officially
solved anytime soon.
After an initial round of interviews and evidence-gathering by
the FBI, the investigation in recent weeks has been much less
visible. Members of the Gore and Bush camps said they are
frustrated but resigned to the lack of resolution before the
public goes to the polls.
Attorney General Janet Reno, asked last week whether the
investigation has been routed onto a slow track until the
election is over, declined to comment. She said only that it is
still pending and all appropriate steps are being taken.
->Law enforcement officials said the only way the debate tape
probe would ->have been completed before the presidential
election would be if someone ->confessed. Moving forward with
anything less would disrupt the election, ->they said.
The focus of the investigation has been on Bush's Austin media
firm, Maverick Media, and a Maverick employee who was captured on
post office surveillance tape Sept. 11 mailing an Express Mail
package. An Express Mail package containing briefing materials
and a videotape of Bush practicing for his televised debates
against Gore was mailed at precisely that time from the same
Austin post office. It was delivered two days later to Gore's
then-debate coach, former congressman Thomas Downey, who
contacted the FBI when he realized the package contained
materials leaked from the Bush operation.
"My suspicion is we're not going to find out anything for
months," said Rusty Hardin, a lawyer representing Maverick Media
owner Mark McKinnon. He said he has had several conversations
with Justice Department prosecutors about the case.
"Investigators are still talking to witnesses," he said. "I think
they are waiting to schedule grand jury appearances until after
the election." Hardin and other lawyers involved in the case
agreed it would be improper for investigators to move just before
an election. "Any responsible public integrity prosecutor would
do it the way they are doing it," Hardin said.
FBI Director Louis J. Freeh assured the Bush campaign that the
incident would be fully investigated. The Justice Department,
meanwhile, has been weighing whether the alleged action involved
a federal crime such as mail fraud or theft, and as a preliminary
matter has decided the actions constitute possible criminal acts.
The Maverick Media employee taped at the Austin post office,
Juanita Yvette Lozano, is on paid leave until the investigation
is over, according to Hardin. Neither Lozano nor her lawyer were
available to discuss the investigation, but she has maintained
her innocence since the beginning.
An official in the Bush camp said the campaign has been informed
that an FBI analysis of hair found on the tape was not a DNA
match with Lozano.
One of the mysteries is whether a campaign briefing book that
belonged to McKinnon was the one copied. Stuart Stevens, a Bush
media consultant who works with McKinnon, said that in September,
McKinnon's debate briefing book was found on the street outside
Bush campaign headquarters by a passerby who returned it. Stevens
said McKinnon put the book down on the sidewalk to help Stevens
load some equipment into his car. The two then drove off to
Bush's ranch, inadvertently leaving the book behind. The debate
practice tape was made at the ranch the following day, he said.
Stevens said the campaign and Maverick Media officials continue
to believe in Lozano's innocence, despite the post office
evidence. He said various media consultants, some of them
Democrats, used the editing facility in the ->building with
Maverick Media. One of them could have copied the tape and
->briefing book, he speculated, then put it in an outgoing
mailbox, which ->Lozano then unknowingly took to the post office
with other items.
Some campaign officials are frustrated the FBI has not
interviewed people with Democratic ties who had access to the
building where Maverick Media is located.
Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News reported new details last week
in the 1986 incident in which Bush's chief campaign strategist,
Karl Rove, was suspected of bugging his own office and blaming a
rival campaign. The Dallas paper, citing documents released under
the state's open records law, said the FBI suspected the firm
Rove hired to sweep his office might have surreptitiously planted
the bug to impress its employer.
Staff writers David Vise and Lois Romano contributed to this
report. � 2000 The Washington Post Company
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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