Former Bush campaign official indicted for phone jamming

[Carolab]

By Erik Stetson, Associated Press, 12/1/2004 19:45

ADVERTISEMENT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted James Tobin, President Bush's former New England campaign chairman, on four counts related to the Republican jamming of get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

State Democrats, who have filed a lawsuit over the jamming, had accused Tobin in October of involvement in the conspiracy.

Tobin, 44, stepped down Oct. 15, but denied involvement at the time.

''I am saddened to learn that this action has been taken against me,'' he said Wednesday in a statement. ''I have great respect for the justice system and plan to fight back to clear my name.''

The four-count indictment charges Tobin with conspiracy to commit telephone harassment and aiding and abetting telephone harassment. He is the highest-level Republican official to be implicated in the case and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

The 2002 jamming consisted of computer-generated calls to get-out-the-vote phones run by state Democrats and the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters' union. More than 800 hang-up calls tied up phones for about 1 1/2 hours.

The jamming's intent was to ''annoy and harass those called and disrupt those two organizations' efforts to encourage and assist citizens in exercising their right to vote,'' the Justice Department said in a news release. The Department identified Tobin as one of several people who orchestrated the jamming.

Democrats praised the indictment, but said it was overdue.

(more) http://www.boston.com/dailynews/336/region/Former_Bush_campaign_official_:.shtml

[Carl Brennan]

1. Wonder where else this has happened?

Remember the voters in Ohio and elsewhere who were called on the phone and told the voting location was changed. This lends credence to the possibility that it was orchestrated high up.

[Jack Bone]

2. kick

hmmmmmm...intresting