http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=E39BDF15-452D-4401-ABE2-CAFA6CA3AD7C Search is on for Vance McAllister leaker
By: John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman
April 8, 2014 12:02 PM EDT
The owner of the building where GOP Rep. Vance McAllister (La.) was filmed in a romantic encounter with a now-former aide said neither he nor his employees leaked the video.
Bill Land, a Monroe, La., architect who owns the building where McAllister’s office is located, said he told Adam Terry, McAllister’s chief of staff, that he would have the employee with access to the surveillance video take a polygraph exam to prove he wasn’t the source of the leak.
Land believes one of McAllister’s own employees was the source of the leak, although he offered no direct proof for that claim.
“We have no interest in trying to harm” McAllister, Land said in an interview. “He’s a tenant of ours. There’s no incentive for me to try to disclose a video that would harm his reputation. I support him, actually.”
Land added: “We’ve offered to clear our name here by taking a polygraph.”
Land made this offer directly to Terry, McAllister’s top aide. Terry had contacted Land and asked whether Land or his employees were responsible for leaking the video to the Ouachita Citizen, a local newspaper, which posted it on Monday afternoon. The video shows McAllister kissing a female congressional staffer.
According to Land, only one of his eight employees has access to the surveillance video. He noted that McAllister’s staff could access the video as well.
“Yeah, I do,” Land said when asked whether a McAllister aide was the leaker. “I think that will come out.”
Federal Election Commission records show Land donated $2,600 on Oct. 17 to Republican Neil Riser, who ran against McAllister in the campaign to replace retiring Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.).
Land also donated $500 to Democrat Jamie Mayo.
Land said his architectural firm does public work, and he therefore is approached for campaign donations from a lot of candidates.
“Unfortunately, when there’s an election, I gotta ante up to all of them,” Land joked.
McAllister, a newly elected member of the House, apologized for the romantic encounter in a statement on Monday and said “there’s no doubt I’ve fallen short and I’m asking for forgiveness.”
McAllister also told a Louisiana newspaper that he has no plans to resign, and no one in the House GOP leadership has called on him to step down.
The staffer that McAllister is seen kissing in the video no longer works for the freshman Republican.
