WHITE HOUSE LINKED TO VOTER FRAUD

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and the Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.
The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 -- as the phone-jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly ended.
Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and the Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show Nearly all the calls to the White House went to the same number, which currently rings inside the political affairs office. In 2002, White House political affairs was led by Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee. The White House declined to say which staffer was assigned that phone number in 2002.
The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, said the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.
The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but has not accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside of New Hampshire were involved.
Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican John E. Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 to 46 percent, on Nov. 5,