to the "Principals Committee" meetings of senior national security and Cabinet members. Wead confirmed that this was so, and blamed his false assertion on "a misunderstanding between him and his source". September 2021 indictment On September 20, 2021 the United States Department of Justice announced that Wead, along with Jesse Benton, had been indicted. Benton and Wead were both charged with one count of conspiracy to solicit and cause an illegal campaign contribution by a foreign national, effect a conduit contribution, and cause false records to be filed with the FEC, one count of contribution by a foreign national, one count of contribution in the name of another and three counts of making false entries in an official record. George W. Bush taping controversy In 1987, Doug Wead began tape recording members of the Bush family, with their permission, providing a historical record of the family. George Bush: Man of Integrity, which includes accounts of all family members, was published in 1988, written primarily from these taped conversations. Wead continued his taping of George W. Bush between 1997 and 2000, recording at least nine hours of telephone conversations with Bush, who was then governor of Texas, as he engaged in his presidential run; the recordings were made without Bush's knowledge. Wead stated that he wanted to create an ongoing record of Bush as a historical figure. In February 2005, a month after Bush was sworn into office for his second term as president, Wead revealed the existence of the tapes to The New York Times, and publicly released twelve excerpts from them, each one ranging in length from five minutes to half an hour. He insisted that the taping was legal, having been made only in U.S. states where there was no law against taping someone without their consent. Several newsworthy revelations emerged from the tapes, such as Bush appearing to acknowledge having previously used marijuana and other drugs, and saying he would not answer press questions about his drug use because he did not want to set a bad example for children; calling then-primary opponent Steve Forbes "mean-spirited" and saying Forbes could not rely on Bush's help if Forbes won the Republican nomination; and calling his eventual Democratic election opponent, Al Gore, "pathologically a liar". Other excerpts seemed to match Bush's public persona, such as his statement that he was not worried about getting corrupted by the presidency because