Aide on Leave During Senate Inquiry

An aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has been put on leave during an investigation into how Republicans gained access to Democratic memos concerning opposition to President Bush’s judicial nominees.

Manuel Miranda, who works for the Tennessee Republican on judicial nominations, is on leave pending the outcome of the inquiry by the Senate sergeant-at-arms, Frist spokesman Nick Smith said. In the matter under investigation, Democratic memos stored on a computer server shared by Judiciary Committee members ended up in GOP hands.

Miranda told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that investigators were looking at work he performed for the Judiciary Committee before he joined Frist’s office. “There was no stealing,” he said. “No systematic surveillance. I never forwarded these memos -- period.”