Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Update: Jesse Benton, McConnell's campaign manager, released a statement responding to this story on Tuesday morning: "We’ve always said the Left will stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Nixonian tactics to bug campaign headquarters is above and beyond."

Update 2: The McConnell campaign has reportedly asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Attorney's office in Louisville to investigate how the tape was made. [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/09/breaking-fbi-asked-to-probe-secret-recordings-of-mcconnell-meeting/ ]

Update 3: Here is more from Benton, via NBC News: "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. 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." [ http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/09/17671629-mcconnell-campaign-alleges-judd-discussions-were-bugged-seeks-fbi-investigation ]

Update 4/Mother Jones Statement: We are still waiting for Sen. Mitch McConnell to comment on the substance of the story. Before posting this article, we contacted his Senate office and his campaign office—in particular, his campaign manager, Jesse Benton—and no one responded. As the story makes clear, we were recently provided the tape by a source who wished to remain anonymous. We were not involved in the making of the tape, but we published a story on the tape due to its obvious newsworthiness. It is our understanding that the tape was not the product of a Watergate-style bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that.

Correction: The text has been updated to reflect that Benton is Ron Paul's grandson by marriage only—he married Ron Paul's granddaughter.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/mitch-mcconnell-ashley-judd-secret-tape-senate