The hunt in the Bush presidential campaign for a "mole" who is allegedly sending confidential information to the rival Gore campaign has been dismissed by the Vice-President. But the Gore campaign has suspended an aide who had boasted that there is such a "mole." The FBI is on the job but has so far thrown little light on the affair. Each side suspects the other of dirty tricks.
Two weeks ago, Mr Tom Downey, who has been playing the role of Governor Bush in Mr Gore's preparations for the election debates, received a package containing a videotape of one of Mr Bush's practice sessions for the debate and other confidential documents from the Bush campaign.
Mr Downey turned all the material over to the FBI which has been trying to discover who sent it. Some in the Gore campaign suspect that Mr Downey was being set up so that the Bush campaign could accuse them of having planted a spy in its Austin, Texas headquarters.
Mr Gore knows nothing about moles but "if somebody in the Bush campaign keeps sending us confidential internal data to us, we'll keep turning it over to the FBI", he said at the weekend.
However, then it emerged that the Gore campaign had suspended an aide called Mr Michael Doyne who had been boasting that they had planted a mole in the Bush camp.
Mr Doyne then denied he had said this but later admitted that he had but that it was a joke.
A Bush spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said it is all "becoming increasingly troublesome." "It does seem that the more the FBI inquires, the more nervous they're getting in Nashville," the Gore headquarters.
Anonymous police sources claimed a suspect Gore mole has been identified in the Bush camp. But the FBI and Bush officials deny this.