FBI opens full probe of mystery debate tape

WASHINGTON - The FBI has expanded its investigation to determine if superiors of an employee of George W. Bush's media consultant were involved in sending a Bush debate tape to his Democratic opponent, a federal law enforcement official said Saturday.

Bush expressed confidence that none of his supporters were involved and the media consultant, Mark McKinnon, helped him prepare on Saturday for debate at his ranch outside Crawford, Texas.

''I'm confident that nobody who supports my candidacy would have mailed the tape,'' Bush told reporters. ''I look forward to finding out who it is.''

Asked if he would fire anyone if a theft were discovered, he said, ''If I found somebody stealing from our campaign? Yeah, I sure would.''

McKinnon, interviewed by phone while driving back to Austin with chief Bush strategist Karl Rove, said he didn't believe his employee, Yvette Lozano, had anything to do with mailing the debate tape to an Al Gore confidant. ''I'm just anxious to get this resolved,'' McKinnon said.

Rove and several Bush advisers said they have confidence in McKinnon, and there are no signs of finger-pointing between advisers. The campaign has also defended Lozano, the initial focus of the FBI investigation.

The FBI questioned Rove on Saturday for about 30 minutes at Bush campaign headquarters in Austin, said Dan Bartlett, a Bush spokesman. He called the questions routine, involving Rove's access to debate material and about the material itself. Rove is one of the last senior Bush officials to be interviewed by federal agents.

A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday that the bureau has opened a full criminal investigation in the matter. Previously the bureau was conducting a preliminary inquiry and officials had thought it could take some time.

Opening a full criminal investigation means agents and prosecutors are more confident of the evidence they have in hand, and are more confident that some federal statute has been violated and are closer to resolution.

Lozano, who works for McKinnon at Maverick Media, has denied mailing the debate materials. She and McKinnon have said the package she mailed Sept. 11 from Austin contained Gap pants she was returning to the company.

The FBI was comparing fingerprints of Lozano with those found on the inside and outside of the debate package mailed from Austin to Washington, the federal law enforcement official said. She has said the FBI took a second set of fingerprints and seized her computer.

One federal investigator cautioned that fingerprints found on the package would not necessarily be conclusive because Lozano may have touched the items in the normal course of business at the ad office.

The label on the Express Mail package received by Gore adviser Tom Downey on Sept. 13 corresponds to the date Lozano was filmed by a security camera mailing a package, the official said. Downey turned the package over to the FBI after finding the Bush debate materials.

Lozano was initially linked to the case through forensic work by the FBI laboratory, officials said.

FBI and Justice Department officials tentatively have settled on three possible federal crimes to investigate: theft from a federally funded activity, mail fraud and false statements to FBI agents.

Campaign officials were surprised by news of the expanded FBI probe.

Karen Hughes, Bush's director of communications, said the FBI has not contacted the campaign since last week when FBI director Louis Freeh spoke with campaign manager Joe Allbaugh and assured him the agency was taking the investigation seriously. She questioned why details of the probe were leaked.

''I hope that someone in Washington is not playing politics with the investigation,'' Hughes said.

Bush aides say they suspect the material was stolen from a junior staff member or from somebody who gained access to McKinnon's firm through an editing company in the same building. A security lapse may have given somebody the opportunity to copy the material illegally, aides say.

Privately, Bush aides say they don't think the FBI is pursuing all avenues, particularly the editing firm that does business with Democrats as well as Republicans.

The developments were an unneeded distraction for the Bush campaign as the first debate loomed Tuesday night.

McKinnon told the Austin American-Statesman that questions to him indicated the FBI was looking into the possibility that Bush campaign officials had the package mailed as part of a scheme to have the upcoming debates postponed or canceled.

Hughes said any suggestion that the Bush campaign would send the tape to Gore to throw doubt on the debates' credibility ''is absolutely absurd.''

Gore said Saturday, ''I have full confidence in the FBI.''

The FBI and attorneys from the public integrity section of the Justice Department's criminal division are trying to decide whether the case amounts to a violation of federal law. To be a federal crime a theft from a federally supported activity must be valued at more than $5,000.