RLANDO, Fla. - The campaign of George W. Bush called on the FBI yesterday to clarify the status of an investigation into the mysterious mailing of some Bush debate-preparation material to the camp of Al Gore.
Quoting a ''federal law enforcement official,'' the Associated Press said yesterday that ''early evidence appears to point to a person in the Bush campaign.'' Later in the day, the service revised its story to say the person was affiliated with ''the Bush camp.''
Bush's chief spokeswoman, Karen Hughes, said FBI field agents in Austin, Texas, had told the campaign Friday night that ''it would be premature to draw any conclusion about who provided videotape and debate information to the Al Gore campaign.''
Joe Allbaugh, the campaign's manager, called FBI Director Louis Freeh seeking the explanation. The two did not speak.
For the moment, the identity of the sender is only conjecture. There is speculation that the material may have been mailed by a Gore ''mole'' within the Bush campaign, a person with whom both campaigns could deny affiliation.
There is also competing speculation that the Gore campaign obtained the material itself, or that the Bush campaign sent it out in an attempt to entrap the Gore camp into a political dirty trick.
The Gore campaign yesterday suspended a junior staff member after he acknowledged that he had boasted of a ''mole'' planted in Bush's campaign. The staff member Michael Doyne, 28, had denied making such claims Friday, but recanted in a conversation with Gore campaign officials. He continued to insist that the ''mole'' was a product of his imagination.
A Gore spokesman, Mark Fabiani, said campaign officials have ''no evidence whatsoever that the campaign has either received or used confidential information from the Bush campaign.''
Speaking of the tape leak, Hughes said she was ''confident it was not anybody who was authorized to have access to these materials.'' That group, she said, included Allbaugh and herself, as well as the campaign chairman, Don Evans, the policy chief, Josh Bolten, media adviser Mark McKinnon, and chief strategist Karl Rove.
On Sept. 13, a package arrived at the office of former US representative Thomas Downey of New York, who had been helping Gore prepare for his debates with Bush. The package had a postmark from Austin, where the Bush campaign is based. Downey did not recognize the sender's name.
The Gore campaign said Downey had told associates that he had seen Bush on the tape in what appeared to be a mock debate with Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who is Gore's stand-in during Bush's debate preparations. The package also contained documents.
Downey turned the materials over to the FBI, which began an inquiry to see, among other things, whether there was evidence that federal law had been violated. Downey also dropped out of Gore's debate preparations.
A Gore spokeswoman, Kym Spell, declined to comment on the investigation and criticized Hughes for doing so.
Material from the Washington Post was included in this report.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
