It looks like that debate scam thing is unraveling -- ACTIVATE

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Date Posted: 21:44:42 03/06/01 Tue
Author: NKLS Cody
Subject: It looks like that debate scam thing is unraveling

Tuesday March 6 9:20 PM ET

Aide to Bush Media Adviser Charged in Debate Case

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Juanita Yvette Lozano, who worked for the main media consultant in George W. Bush's presidential campaign, was indicted on Tuesday for sending secret debate materials to an adviser to Democratic rival Al Gore, and then lying about it.

Both Lozano, a low-level aide, and her supervisor, media consultant Mark McKinnon, have maintained her innocence, but she was charged with one count of mail fraud in sending the materials and two counts of lying about it, the Justice Department said.

A federal grand jury in Austin, Texas, handed up the indictment. Lozano, 30, faces up to 15 years in prison and a $750,000 fine if convicted on all charges, the Justice Department said.

The Justice Department began an investigation to determine who sent a 60-minute videotape of a Bush practice session and more than 120 pages of confidential documents to former
Democratic Rep. Tom Downey, who was helping Gore prepare for the presidential debates.

Downey received the package on Sept. 13, and gave the materials to his lawyer, who turned the package over to the FBI.

The investigation, led by the Justice Department's public integrity unit, quickly focused on Lozano, who worked at Maverick Media, a media and advertising firm in Austin.

U.S. Post Office security cameras showed Lozano mailing a package at the same time the package was mailed to Downey's office, federal law enforcement officials said. She claimed
her package contained pants McKinnon was returning to a Gap retail outlet.

Lozano worked for McKinnon for a number of years and used to baby-sit his children. She previously worked as an aide to several Texas Democrats.

Materials Sent By ``Amy Smith''

The indictment alleged that Lozano sent the materials in an Express Mail package using the name ``Amy Smith'' and a false return address.

The package allegedly included a cover note bearing the name ``Amy'' and which said, ``I will call you soon to find out what other materials can be useful to the VP,'' an apparent
reference to Gore, who was then vice president. The note concluded by saying, ``Good luck.''

The first count of the indictment charged Lozano with a mail-fraud scheme to defraud the Bush campaign of its' confidential and valuable work product, and to defraud her employer of her ``honest services.''

Lozano also was charged with lying to FBI agents in a voluntary interview the week after the leak, misleading the agents about the purpose for her trip to the Post Office on the day she mailed the package.

According to the third count of the indictment, Lozano later voluntarily appeared before the grand jury and committed perjury, testifying falsely that she knew nothing about Downey or his location before the leak of the materials.

In September, Bush expressed confidence that the tape did not come from anyone in his campaign, and that he was looking forward to finding out who sent the materials.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, ``We said all along that no one is more interested than us to get to the bottom of this. People are innocent until proven guilty. If
these allegations were true we would be very surprised and very disappointed.''

Asked if Bush still had confidence in McKinnon, McClellan replied, ``Absolutely.'' He told reporters, ``The president has great trust in Mark McKinnon. He was a very loyal member
of our team and always will be.''

I find it interesting that the Bush people aren't distancing themselves from McKinnon and Lozano by calling them 'campaign moles', but are sputtering out "innocent until proven guilty" phrases that they don't believe in. If they did, those same GOP operatives wouldn't have rushed to impeach Clinton and attempt to wipe away the previous two legitimate presidential elections.

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Replies:

Re: It looks like that debate scam thing is unraveling -- fringer, 01:32:23 03/07/01 Wed
These bastards make me want to -- Mike Evergreen�, 10:53:03 03/08/01 Thu