Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's re-election-campaign officials have asked the FBI to look into how one of their private strategy meetings was recorded.
Liberal-leaning magazine Mother Jones said it had obtained a recording of the meeting held February 2 in Louisville, Kentucky. During the meeting, the senator and aides discussed ways to reveal faults of potential opponents, actress Ashley Judd and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Judd has since ruled out running against McConnell in 2014.
A campaign statement Tuesday said, "Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell's campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation."
The magazine reported the recording was provided last week by a source who requested anonymity.
Mother Jones obtained a recording of a private fundraising appearance by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year in which he said 47 percent of Americans were dependent on government and unlikely to vote for him. When disclosed, the recording dealt the Romney campaign a damaging blow.