CONCORD, N.H. --A federal judge ruled Friday on evidence that can be presented in the upcoming trial of James Tobin, a former Republican official accused of involvement in a phone jamming scheme.
Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe. Tobin is accused in an alleged Republican conspiracy to jam Democrats' get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002. He denies the charges.
Among the motions considered by McAuliffe was a request from Tobin's attorneys asking the judge to instruct the jury that the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee were not involved.
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Two of Tobin's GOP associates, former New Hampshire Republican chairman Chuck McGee, and consultant Allen Raymond, have already pleaded guilty to phone-jamming conspiracy charges. Both were fined and sentenced to several months in prison; both have cooperated with investigators.
In 2002, Tobin served as political director of the national committee working get Republican senators elected. He is accused of putting McGee in touch with Raymond, then president of Alexandria, Va.-based GOP Marketplace LLC, to set up the phone-jamming plot. Tobin last year served as President Bush's 2004 New England campaign chairman, but resigned last October after the phone-jamming accusations surfaced.
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