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Bush camp: FBI should quiz Gore aides about tape

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept 26 (Reuters) - An aide to George W. Bush questioned on Tuesday the scope of an FBI inquiry into how secret campaign material reached the camp of his political opponent and said Bush staffers were willing to take lie detector tests.

Bush Communications Director Karen Hughes urged law-enforcement officials to be more aggressive in investigating who sent documents and a videotape of the Republican presidential nominee's debate preparations to an adviser to Al Gore, Bush's Democratic rival in the Nov. 7 election.

"We think it's incomplete when they only talk to Bush campaign people," Hughes told reporters during a visit to California. She said she had been given no indication that the FBI had interviewed anyone on Gore's campaign staff.

She pointed to the weekend reprimand of a 28-year-old Gore aide who allegedly joked about having a mole in Bush's Austin, Texas, headquarters, saying: "The only campaign that has suspended an employee is the Gore campaign. We have not suspended any employees. We don't have an employee who boasted about having a mole."

Purloined package

At issue is a purloined videotape of the Texas governor's preparations for his first presidential debate with Gore next Tuesday in Boston. The package, postmarked Austin, was received by former Representative Tom Downey, who was helping the vice president with his own debate preparations. Downey watched the tape briefly, turned it over to the FBI and withdrew from Gore's practice sessions.

"I would suggest that a thorough and complete investigation of how Bush materials ended up in the Gore campaign involves both the Bush and Gore campaigns," Hughes said.

An FBI spokesman declined to respond to Hughes' comments. "We're still in a preliminary inquiry stage," he said.

Asked if she and other Bush staff would be prepared to take polygraph tests, Hughes replied that they had cooperated "fully and completely" with the FBI and added, "We would be willing to take lie detector tests."

She said some but not all of those who had access to the tapes had been interviewed by the FBI. She would not be more specific.

"Playing politics"

On Saturday, Hughes denounced the Justice Department for "playing politics" by leaking information that a Bush staffer was suspected of sending the video to the Gore camp and said campaign manager Joe Allbaugh had asked to speak with FBI Director Louis Freeh.

She said on Tuesday that another FBI official had returned Allbaugh's call on Monday but Allbaugh was "not satisfied" and had again requested a conversation with Freeh.

Bush has been kept up to date by staff members and has expressed "absolute confidence" in them, Hughes said, adding that the candidate had also voiced concern about the Justice Department's motives in leaking information about a possible suspect.

Only the Bush top echelon had access to the tapes: Hughes, Allbaugh, chief political strategist Karl Rove, media adviser Mark McKinnon and a handful of others.

"I'm convinced that no one who had authorised access to those tapes would have supplied them to the Gore campaign. Whoever took the tapes and copied them and delivered them to the Gore campaign did so by unethical means," Hughes said. "We know where the legitimate tapes are, and we have them all."

Hughes angrily denounced a published suggestion by the Democratic Party's chairwoman in Texas, Molly Beth Malcolm, that "this has Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it."

"First, consider the source," Hughes said. "That is ridiculous. Karl Rove has worked around the clock for years for Governor Bush and to have Governor Bush elected. That is absurd."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Tuesday, September 26, 2000


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