Bush staff expelled pair

White House aide ordered two out of Denver event

Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 3, 2007 at midnight

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Two people ousted from a presidential appearance in Denver two years ago finally found out Friday that the order came from two White House staffers, one of them a special assistant to President Bush in charge of his public appearances.

The long-sought revelation takes the Denver pair's lawsuit over violation of their free- speech rights to the heart of the West Wing.

That's where special assistant Steve Atkiss worked, just down the hall from the president's Oval Office, according to a 2005 map published in The Washington Post.

Leslie Weise and Alex Young hope to prove their removal was part of a White House policy to bar people with differing viewpoints from presidential public events, and they want a federal judge to rule that illegal, said their attorney, Martha Tierney.

The pair say they were told by the Denver Secret Service chief who investigated the incident that they were removed from the taxpayer-funded public event at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum because they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker that read, "No more blood for oil."

In a deposition delayed for 15 months by legal disputes, the event volunteer who actually removed the pair testified Friday that he was told to ask them to leave by Atkiss, deputy director for advance for the White House, and Jamie O'Keefe, who was lead advance for the White House, according to attorneys for both sides.

White House spokesman Blair Jones declined to comment Friday, citing the ongoing litigation. Atkiss and O'Keefe did not return calls seeking their response.

The official government biography for Atkiss says that as deputy director of advance and special assistant to the president, he was the "principal action officer responsible for planning and executing the President's worldwide travel and events."

Shortly after the Denver incident, Atkiss was given a $19,000 raise and promoted to special assistant to the president for operations.

The Post graphic of White House offices showed Atkiss on the prestigious main floor of the West Wing, down the hall from the president's office. In a place where proximity is key, he was closer than both vice president Dick Cheney and the president's closest adviser, Karl Rove.

Atkiss shared an office with Susan Ralston, Rove's assistant, who resigned in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Atkiss is now chief of staff for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. O'Keefe continues to work on the White House advance team.

The lawsuit, which is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, says Weise and Young were forcibly escorted from the Bush speech in Denver before it began by a man they thought was with the Secret Service. They later identified the man as Michael Casper, a federal employee working the event as a volunteer.

They sued Casper and another volunteer involved in their ouster, Jay Klinkerman, then head of the Colorado Young Republicans, to find out who gave the order.

On Friday, Casper named Atkiss and O'Keefe.

Plaintiff's attorney Martha Tierney said Atkiss and O'Keefe will be added to the lawsuit and she will seek to depose them on whether they were acting on White House policy.

Sean Gallagher, Casper's attorney, said Casper testified that "four or five people came up to Mr. Casper and said these people have a history of disrupting political events."

Gallagher said that Casper then contacted Atkiss and O'Keefe and they "directed him to ask them please to leave the event."

Weiss and Young have said Casper forced them to leave. They say they did not resist, thinking he was a federal law-enforcement officer.

They also say they did nothing to disrupt the event, and did not have a history of doing so at other political events. "I've never been disruptive an an event in my life," said Weise, a 40-year- old lawyer.

What happened

A timeline of events related to a 2005 incident in which three people in Denver were ejected from a public presidential appearance.

• March 21, 2005 - Alex Young, Leslie Weise and Karen Bauer are ejected from a public presidential appearance at the Wings Over the Rockies museum. They say the Secret Service told them they were bounced by an event staffer because of a bumper sticker on their car: "No more blood for oil."

• March 31 - Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., writes to White House chief of staff Andrew Card asking him "to look into the allegations of inappropriate behavior by the White House advance staff at the Denver town hall."

• April 5 - Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., requests a House committee inquiry, citing evidence of 46 citizens being excluded from events in three states.

• April 2 - One of the three identifies Jay Klinkerman, head of the Colorado Young Republicans, as aiding in their ouster.

• April 27 - White House press secretary Scott McClellan says a belief that someone intends to disrupt a presidential event is enough to have the person removed.

• July 29 - U.S. prosecutors decline to press charges of impersonating a Secret Service agent against the still-unidentified event staffer.

• Nov. 20 - The American Civil Liberties Union sues, alleging violation of Weise and Young's civil rights. Bauer decides not to join the suit. The suit names Michael Casper, a General Services Administration employee, and Klinkerman.

• Jan. 1, 2006 - Casper moves to dismiss. Weise and Young ask to question Casper to learn identities of the higher-ups who ordered the ouster. During the next year, the issue moves through the district and appeals courts.

• March 2, 2007 - Casper and Klinkerman give depositions, and Casper says Steve Atkiss and Jamie O'Keefe ordered the ouster.

imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5438

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