Bush Friend, Ex-Lawmaker Advises Neil
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WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Thomas Ashley (D-Ohio), a longtime friend of President Bush, confirmed today that he’s been giving advice to Neil Bush since last winter on the controversy surrounding the President’s son’s role in the collapse of a Denver savings and loan.
But Ashley, a banking lobbyist, denied that the President had asked him to contact his son.
“That is absolutely inaccurate,” Ashley said in an interview. “I’m too smart to do that.”
The Denver Post reported in today’s editions that Ashley, a college classmate of George Bush from Yale, had talked to the younger Bush at the President’s behest before Neil Bush was questioned by federal banking regulators.
The newspaper attributed the report to comments by Neil Bush himself, contained in a deposition taken by the Office of Thrift Supervision.
“If Neil thinks his father called me, he’s mistaken,” Ashley said.
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