-Caveat Lector-
Former aide to Bush adviser will plead guilty to mail fraud
05/25/2001
By Pete Slover / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN - A former office manager for George W. Bush's media
adviser has
agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and perjury, accepting
responsibility for stealing and mailing debate preparation
materials to
the Al Gore campaign, then lying about it to a grand jury.
Under the deal she reached with prosecutors, Juanita Yvette
Lozano, 31,
of Austin faces a $200 fine and prison sentence of between six
months
and a year under federal sentencing guidelines, according to
court
documents filed Friday.
A judge has the option of allowing her to serve her time at home
or in a
halfway house.
The plea concludes the case that launched the presidential mole
hunt of
2000. It began with the Sept. 11 mailing of a Bush videotape,
strategy
book and other papers swiped from Maverick Media.
The material was sent to former U.S. Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y.,
who was
advising Mr. Gore before the first presidential faceoff with Mr.
Bush.
Mr. Downey promptly turned the materials over to the FBI, and
agents
later identified Ms. Lozano as a likely suspect, based on
surveillance
videotape from the downtown Austin.
In exchange for her plea, the government is dropping one count of
a
three-count indictment, the accusation that Ms. Lozano lied to
the FBI
during the investigation.
The papers contain a lengthy restatement of the facts alleged in
the
indictment, along with Ms. Lozano's concession - despite her
longtime
insistence to the contrary - that they are true.
"I hereby admit that all of the allegations contained in (the
plea
papers)
are true and correct and that I am guilty of the offenses
charged..."
said a statement that Ms. Lozano and her lawyer signed and dated
Wednesday, under a detailed recounting of her acts.
Early in the investigation, Ms. Lozano insisted the post-office
video
showed her mailing a pair of her boss' mail order pants back to
the
GAP. To the grand jury, she didn't deny mailing the package, but
said
she had no idea who the recipient was.
Among the cloak-and-dagger details she acknowledged was how she
used her
home computer to look up Mr. Downey's address on the Internet,
before
sending him a package promising further help and signed "Good
luck,
Amy."
FBI agents found a record of that address search on her hard
drive, and
her subsequent denial of that to the grand jury was the basis of
the
perjury charge against her.
Ms. Lozano could not be reached and her lawyer did not return a
call
seeking comment. No date has been set for her to enter her plea,
though
a person familiar with the negotiations said that is likely to
happen
June 8, when a pre-trial hearing had been scheduled in front of
U.S.
District Court Judge Sam Sparks in Austin.
Sentencing normally takes place two to three months after a plea,
following a court background investigation.
The Gore campaign has steadfastly denied any role in the mailing.
The pleadings give conspiracy theorists no answers about Ms.
Lozano's
motives or any help she may have gotten from other people.
The agreement includes standard plea language in which Ms.
Lozano
agreed to fully cooperate with the government in her case, and
any
others that she may know about. Prosecutors in the Public
Integrity
section of the Justice Department have never mentioned charges
against
anyone else, but again Friday declined to rule them out or
otherwise
comment on the agreement.
In the past, government lawyers have characterized the Bush
campaign as
victims, not suspects, in the case.
Ms. Lozano, a Democratic county precinct chair, gained access to
the
debate materials through her work for Maverick Media. During Ann
Richards 1990 gubernatorial campaign Ms. Lozano had met - and
for years
had babysat -- for the company's president, Mark McKinnon.
Mr. McKinnon, whose lawyer says he is not under suspicion, said
he is
at a loss to explain an unparalleled personal and professional
betrayal.
"It put the campaign at risk, and it put me through hell," he
said.
"We're talking about a race that was won by fewer than 500 votes.
If
Tom Downy has been any less honorable of a person, we could have
been
talking about President Gore."
=======================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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