A controversial SuperPAC working to defeat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in next year's midterm elections is behind the secret taping of an inflammatory strategy session held by the Kentucky Republican, a political official in the Bluegrass State says.
Leaders from Progress Kentucky, an embattled liberal group seeking "to defeat Mitch McConnell," allegedly taped campaign workers and McConnell himself at a February meeting during which several staffers make disparaging remarks about Ashley Judd, who briefly considered challenging McConnell.
Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, who founded Progress Kentucky, told a fellow Democratic operative how they secretly taped the meeting, WFPL, the Louisville NPR affiliate, reported Thursday.
According to WFPL, Jacob Conway, a committee member of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, says Reilly and Morrison found their way into a Feb. 2 open house being hosted by the McConnell campaign and stuck around to tape the strategy session.
"They were in the hallway after the, I guess after the celebration and hoopla ended, apparently these people broke for lunch and had a strategy meeting," Conway said of the alleged recorders.
RELATED: MCCONNELL CAMP WANTS FBI PROBE FOLLOWING RELEASE OF SECRETLY TAPED CAMPAIGN MEETING RECORDINGS
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The FBI is investigating how the recordings were obtained. Staffers said Judd was emotionally unbalanced and suffered from suicidal thoughts.
"One of them held the elevator, the other one did the recording and they left. That was what they told to me from them directly," added Conway, who said the men may have recorded the meeting with a "phone or recording device they had in their pocket."
"Could've been an iPhone, could've been a Flip camera or something like that," Conway told WFPL.
Earlier this week, Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, published the recordings on its website but would not explain how it obtained the tapes, which capture McConnell operatives making remarks about Judd, who last month opted against a run.
"She's clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced," one McConnell staffer is heard saying on the recording.
"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," the person adds.
RELATED: ASHLEY JUDD WON'T RUN FOR KENTUCKY SENATE SEAT
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was not recorded criticizing Ashley Judd, who briefly considered running against him, but endorsed an aggressive response to opponents.
McConnell himself isn't caught on tape saying anything critical of Judd but is heard endorsing the campaign's intense opposition research strategy.
"I assume most of you have played the, the game Whac-A-Mole." McConnell is heard saying. "This is the Whac-A-Mole period of the campaign … when anybody sticks their head up, do them out."
The release of the tapes prompted McConnell to request an FBI investigation into how the magazine obtained the recordings.
In a release Thursday, McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton confirmed that the FBI was looking into the situation.
"WFPL's reports that left-wing activists illegally recorded a private meeting inside our campaign headquarters are very disturbing," Benton said. "At this point, we understand that the FBI is immersed in an intensive criminal investigation and must defer any further comment to them."
Representatives from the FBI, McConnell's campaign and Progress Kentucky did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this year, Progress Kentucky drew negative attention for criticizing McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan, for having close ties to China.
