At that caucus, Edwards's aides claimed that this request helped put him in second place.

Al-Sadr's aides claimed that he had no such plans.

Asked about this statement, which a former aide claimed that he made in 1975, Mr. Brown seemed agitated.

The Mayor's aides then claimed the vote was illegal.

When caught, his aides claimed that the mailing had cost only about $37,000.

When Perkins attempted to reach Rand by telephone, his aides claimed to not know where he was.

But Mr. Yeltsin's aides claim to have found a loophole.

His aide claimed there was an outright ban on him leaving the country.

An aide later claimed that he was misrepresented and was saying that "compared to American society, we don't have many homosexuals".

Privately, other aides claimed it would help calm the furious row if details of the trip were leaked.