NRA Lobbyist Resigns Over Reno Rumors
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WASHINGTON — A National Rifle Assn. lobbyist resigned after admitting that he spread unsubstantiated rumors that Janet Reno was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving but not charged, the NRA announced Thursday.
David Gibbons resigned as the NRA’s director of federal affairs, said Jim Baker, the organization’s chief lobbyist.
The NRA also apologized to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We do not truck in unsubstantiated rumors, and Mr. Gibbons had done so. He was given the opportunity to resign,” Baker said.
Baker said Gibbons acknowledged that he talked to Roll Call, the weekly newspaper that covers Congress, which reported last week that the NRA lobbyist had passed along the rumor to Republican aides in the Senate.
After the reports first surfaced, White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers called them “absolutely unconscionable.”
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