Texan Indicted in Leak of Bush Campaign Tape

Texan Indicted in Leak of Bush Campaign Tape

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, March 7, 2001

AUSTIN, Texas (UPI) – A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted a former employee of a media consultant to President Bush's campaign on charges of leaking a videotape of a practice debate and other documents to the campaign of Vice President Al Gore last year.

Juanita Yvette Lozano, 30, of Austin was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of mail fraud, making false statements to the FBI, and perjury before a grand jury. If convicted on all the charges, Lozano faces up to 15 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

Lozano, who was an employee of Maverick Media, secretly gathered and copied more than 120 pages of debate preparation documents and a 60-minute videotape of a private debate practice session involving Bush and advisers, the indictment alleges.

The videotape and the copies from the "Communications Book," which contained more than 120 pages of strategies, facts, responses and debate points, was allegedly mailed on Sept. 11, 2000, to former Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y., who was an aide to the Gore campaign.

The package included a cover note bearing the name "Amy," which described the documents and stated: "I will call you soon to find out what other materials can be useful to the VP." After receiving the package, Downey turned the material over to the FBI.

White House officials expressed disappointment, if the charges are true.

"We said all along that no one is more interested than us to get to the bottom of this," said Scott McClellan, a deputy press secretary. He added that people are innocent until proven guilty but "if these allegations are true, we would be very surprised and disappointed."

Lozano's name had surfaced during the investigation when she was seen on a security videotape mailing a package at an Austin post office about the time the package was postmarked.

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