From NewsMax:
A little more than a year before he was tapped to head the special counsel probe into allegations that the Bush administration "outed" CIA employee Valerie Plame, then-U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald abruptly dropped a wiretapping probe into Sen. Tom Harkin's campaign, saying no laws had been broken.
On Sept. 3, 2002, Harkin operatives arranged to secretly tape a strategy meeting by his then-Republican opponent, Rep. Greg Ganske.
Brian Conley, a former aide to the Iowa Democrat, made a digital recording while attending the meeting at the request of Harkin staff member Rafael Ruthchild, according to the Des Moines Register. Conley then returned the recorder to Ruthchild, who provided a copy of the recording and a transcript to a reporter.
The Ganske campaign immediately cried foul and demanded that Polk County Attorney John Sarcone launch a criminal probe. Patrick Fitzgerald, who headed up the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, also launched an investigation.
Meanwhile, the key players in the case gave every indication they believed they were in legal jeopardy.
Conley and Ruthchild refused to speak to investigators on the advice of their attorneys, with Ruthchild resigning from her job.
Sen. Harkin staunchly denied he had any prior knowledge of the possibly criminal tape plot, though prosecutor Sarcone declined to interrogate him - an indulgence Mr. Fitzgerald apparently also granted.
After a brief two week probe, Sarcone - a Democrat whose sister worked for then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in Washington, D.C. - declared that the Harkin campaign had broken no laws.
After a separate but equally brief investigation, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald announced that there was no violation of federal law by Harkin's team.
Fitzgerald's reluctance to pursue the Harkin Tapegate scandal stands in marked contrast to his conduct of the Leakgate investigation, where he's earned a reputation as an aggressive and creative prosecutor who has pushed the envelope and left no stone unturned.
