Mitch McConnell, the Senate GOP Leader, is asking for help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to NBC News.
McConnell, who will be running for re-election, wants the FBI to investigate how liberal magazine Mother Jones, got their hands on recordings of private meetings with his re-election team.
The recordings reveal comments made about actress Ashley Judd, who was planning to run for a Senate seat in the 2014 re-election. They also reveal statements made about other potential Democratic candidates.
McConnell’s campaign team strongly affirm the leak was not an inside job.
"Senator McConnell’s campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings," said Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager. “Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Sen. McConnell’s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished will presumably be the subject of a criminal investigation."
The McConnell campaign believes the leak is the latest attempt by Democrats to hinder Republican re-election efforts.
"We’ve always said the Left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond," Benton said.
According to recordings posted on the Mother Jones website, the re-election team discussed using Judd’s mental health against her if she ran for senate:
“She's clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. I mean it's been documented. Jesse can go in chapter and verse from her autobiography about, you know, she's suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the '90s.”
They also made fun of her view on the Christian faith.
“She is critical…of traditional Christianity. She sort of views it as sort of a vestige of patriarchy. She says Christianity gives a God like a man, presented and discussed exclusively with male imagery, which legitimizes and seals male power, the intention to dominate even if that intention is nowhere visible."
When asked about an FBI investigation into how the recordings were obtained, Mother Jones’ David Corn did not offer comment. He simply said, “This story speaks for itself.”
