Public Relations Expert's Role in Attorney Firing Probed

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From Truthout:

By Matt Renner

t r u t h o u t Report
Tuesday 12 June 2007

Following a report by Truthout, a Washington, DC watchdog group recently issued a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records of contacts between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a high-ranking Republican campaign strategist and public relations consultant.

Recent documents released to Congressional investigators revealed that public relations expert Mark McKinnon engaged in high-level consultation with the White House after the US attorney firing situation began to boil over. McKinnon, a well-known campaign strategist for the GOP, corresponded in his official capacity as vice chairman of Public Strategies Inc., a corporate public relations firm, with Peter Wehner, director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. The Office of Strategic Initiatives is an executive branch think-tank which "plans, develops and coordinates a long-range strategy for achieving presidential priorities," and "conducts research and assists in message development," according to the White House web site.

In his email, McKinnon asked Wehner for help in response to a critical article written by Salon.com columnist Joe Conason on Friday, February 9. The following Monday, McKinnon wrote to Wehner asking, "Do we have something off-the-shelf on this?"

In response to a previous Truthout report, McKinnon claimed that he was "not a consultant to the White House," and had "never been paid a dime by the White House or the Republican National Committee." According to McKinnon, he sent an email to the director of the top White House strategy office asking for a "response to Joe Conason's article because he was 'curious about what the facts were,'" and that the White House staff didn't do "anything for me that [they] wouldn't have done for any other citizen."

McKinnon's campaign strategy company, Maverick Media Inc., was a primary benefactor of the 2000 and 2004 Bush campaigns; Bush spent $170 million with McKinnon's firm during the 2004 election cycle. Previously, McKinnon worked as a media consultant for Democrat Ann Richards in her 1990 and 1994 Texas gubernatorial campaigns.

Richards was defeated in 1994 by Bush. After the defeat, McKinnon switched sides and went on to help Bush to reelection in 1998. Bush has called McKinnon "a trusted ally," and said he was "particularly impressed by [McKinnon's] honesty," according to the Public Strategies Inc.'s web site. A scandal involving McKinnon erupted in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election. In preparation for a debate between then Vice President Al Gore and then Governor Bush, McKinnon videotaped a Bush practice debate session. This tape, along with 120 pages of debate preparation documents, were then sent to Gore campaign adviser Tom Downey. The Gore campaign immediately alerted the FBI, who began an investigation. A Maverick Media employee under McKinnon, Juanita Yvette Lozano (also a former Richards campaign staff member), eventually pleaded guilty to lying to a grand jury during the investigation. A surveillance tape from the post office from which the package was sent clearly depicted Lozano with a package in tow. She falsely claimed that the package she was mailing that day was a pair of khaki pants from the GAP that she was returning on McKinnon's behalf. Lozano was sentenced to one year in prison followed by three years probation for her attempt to cover up her involvement in the leak. McKinnon was not accused of any crime.