Bush aides tied to Denver 3 case
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer
03/02/2007
A former White House official who ordered three activists expelled from a 2005 Denver public forum with President Bush says it was White House policy to exclude potentially-disruptive guests from Bush's appearances nationwide.
The former official, Steve Atkiss, revealed the policy today in an interview after two volunteer bouncers identified him and a current White House staffer, Jamie O'Keefe, as the officials who ordered the so-called "Denver Three" activists sent away.
Atkiss is now a U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief of staff.
In their sworn depositions today, Michael Casper and Jay Bob Klinkerman, who served as bouncers at Bush's 2005 event in Denver, for the first time named the White House officials who they say ordered the Denver Three to be excluded.
An American Civil Liberties Union legal team is using a lawsuit to challenge the expulsion of these activists, arguing in federal court that it violated their constitutional free-speech rights. The Denver Three were ticketed to attend the event and said they were not disruptive.
Alex Young (left) and Leslie Weise, seen in a
2005 photo at the ACLU office,
filed a federal suit
claiming that for political reasons
they were kicked out of a 2005
town meeting with President Bush
held in Denver. (Post file / Lyn Alweis)
