This Weekly Standard story showed up in my Twitter feed and elsewhere as it bounced around the right-wing echo chamber.
Liberal activist Curtis Morrison described in Salon how he surreptitiously recorded Mitch McConnell plotting to use Ashley Judd’s mental health issues against her if she chose to run for the Senate (which she ultimately did not do).
When the recording was first released by David Corn, conservative bloggers were claiming that someone had bugged McConnell’s office since none of the participants were likely candidates for releasing a recording of the meeting to a lefty reporter.
The Weekly Standard chose to falsely continue that narrative by summarizing Morrison’s account thusly:
Liberal Activist’ Admits to Bugging Mitch McConnell’s Office
Except, of course, that is entirely a lie. Morrison did not hide a recording device in McConnell’s office. Rather, as his account is quite clear, the voices of the various parties at the meeting were audible from the hallway outside of McConnell’s office. Morrison used his flip phone to record that audio.
Morrison describes trying to find McConnell’s headquarters which was hosting a celebration event marking its grand opening.
The front door to the office building was unlocked, and there was no one behind the reception desk. Walking down the hall of the second floor, I recognized McConnell’s voice. He was talking about Sen. Rand Paul’s strategic use of the Tea Party in procuring his 2010 election.
The voices were coming from the other side of a nearby door, which had a window. I pulled out my Flip camera and started to record.
Whether or not McConnell and others in the meeting had an expectation to privacy under this situation is probably something only a jury could decide, and will likely turn on whether or not Morrison had a legal right to be in that hallway.
But while Morrison seems to have delusions of grandeur and a weak ethical compass, to describe what he did as “bugging Mitch McConnell’s office” is beyond absurd.