Harman denies allegations, questions wiretap

Rep. Jane Harman is denying that she tried to interfere with a prosecution of alleged espionage-related charges and is questioning whether a federal agency was improperly spying on a member of Congress.

Harman (D-Calif.) responded angrily Monday to a story in CQ Politics reporting that the National Security Agency monitored a conversation in which she told a suspected Israeli agent that she would press prosecutors to reduce charges against two former officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

{mosads}”If there is anything about this story that should arouse concern, it is that the Bush administration may have been engaged in electronic surveillance of members of the congressional intelligence committees,” said a statement from Harman’s office.

She said that the CQ story “recycles three-year-old discredited reporting of largely unsourced material.”

The story said she agreed to lobby the Justice Department in exchange for help in lobbying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. Pelosi eventually passed her over for the position.

It also said that a connected investigation of Harman was dropped not for a “lack of evidence,” as previously reported, but because of intervention by then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who wanted Harman’s help in defending the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.

Harman said her support for AIPAC is well known, but that the rest of the story is groundless.

“Congresswoman Harman has never contacted the Justice Department about its prosecution of present or former AIPAC employees and the department has never informed her that she was or is the subject of or involved in an investigation,” the Harman statement said.

AIPAC labeled the notion of a quid pro quo as “absurd.”

“AIPAC would never engage in a quid pro quo on a federal investigation or any other federal matter. That is absurd,” said AIPAC spokesman Patrick Dorton.

CQ quoted an NSA transcript in which Harman reportedly told the unidentified Israeli agent she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it will make a difference.” Before hanging up, according to the transcript, she said, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

The transcript also shows she wasn’t very complimentary of Gonzales, saying “he just follows White House orders.”