Lawyers in Cisneros Case Admit Tapes Were Altered

A federal prosecutor acknowledged at a court hearing Monday that crucial tape recordings of phone conversations to be used as evidence against former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros are all copies and that the originals have been destroyed.

Mark Jackowski, an assistant to independent counsel David Barrett, also told the court that Cisneros’ former mistress, who made the recordings, deleted portions of the conversations she deemed to be irrelevant to what she was seeking--private admissions by Cisneros that he felt obligated to pay her thousands of dollars.

Jackowski’s statements followed demands by defense attorneys for the former Cabinet member that U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin rule the tape recordings inadmissible at Cisneros’ trial in September. Cisneros, 52, who is now a Los Angeles cable television executive, is accused of lying to FBI agents about the extent of his financial relationship with the woman.

Court Is Awaiting Ex-Mistress Testimony

The government is “not entitled to put on tampered, inauthentic evidence,” defense attorney Barry Simon declared.

Sporkin did not rule immediately on the question, pending full testimony this week by the mistress, Linda Jones, formerly known as Linda Medlar.

Jackowski said Jones deleted passages that dealt with sexual matters, third parties and with other “personal matters,” and destroyed the originals after making copies.

“That is the evidence we’re left with,” he said. Referring to the lack of original recordings, Jackowski insisted that that “itself does not render them inadmissible.”

Of 33 taped conversations that the government plans to introduce at trial, five involve talks from which portions were deleted by Jones, he said. “She just edited out these offensive passages or what she believed to be offensive passages,” Jackowski said.

Cisneros, who pleaded not guilty in January 1998, faces 18 counts of lying, conspiracy and obstruction of justice for allegedly hiding from FBI investigators the extent of his financial relationship with Jones.

Cisneros’ financial ties to Jones surfaced during a routine FBI check of his background in late 1992, after President Clinton nominated Cisneros as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

At the time of his affair with Jones, Cisneros was mayor of San Antonio.

A ruling disallowing use of Jones’ tape recordings would leave a major, perhaps fatal, hole in the government’s case against Cisneros.

Summoned to the witness stand by Jackowski, Jones, 50, testified Monday that she had taped dozens of phone conversations with Cisneros from 1990 to 1993, concerned that he might renege on what she said was an obligation he assumed to pay her thousands of dollars over a period of years following the breakup of their relationship several years earlier.

Jones Now Serving Time for Bank Fraud

She said she feared that if Cisneros took the job in Washington, “I didn’t see how he could make the payments financially.”

Cisneros publicly acknowledged their affair during his final months as mayor. Jones testified that, after his admission, he agreed to pay her $3,000 to $4,000 a month in support because she could not obtain employment in San Antonio because of the adverse publicity. She had previously been a political fund-raiser.

Jones is now serving a three-year sentence in a federal prison in Texas after pleading guilty last year to bank fraud, obstruction of justice and money-laundering in an unrelated case that Barrett developed against her during his Cisneros inquiry.

Cisneros’ lawyers are seeking court permission to conduct a psychiatric examination of Jones, who has acknowledged suffering from depression and has once attempted suicide.

Cisneros is the second former Clinton Cabinet member to be indicted on criminal charges. The first, ex-Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, was acquitted by a jury in December of charges he received gifts from companies regulated by his department.