FBI reviewing Senate campaign ad controversy

The trouble started over a Mark Kennedy campaign advertisement that hasn't even aired yet. The ad was discovered online by a blogger, who sent it to Tara McGuinness, Amy Klobuchar's communications director.

Klobuchar's campaign asked McGuinness to resign earlier this week. Ben Goldfarb, Klobuchar's campaign manager, says McGuinness should've known to turn the ad away and shouldn't have asked others to look at it.

Klobuchar's campaign says it learned about the incident over the weekend and reported it to the FBI on Monday. Her campaign broke the news to the public and Kennedy's campaign on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Republican Party of Minnesota called on Klobuchar to fire any other staffers who saw the ad. State party chairman Ron Carey also wanted to know why it took Klobuchar five days to notify everyone.

Goldfarb says the Klobuchar campaign didn't want to publicize the incident until the process of reporting to the FBI was complete.

FBI spokesman Paul McCabe says his agency was reviewing the case to determine if any laws had been broken.

Blogger Noah Kunin, 24, says he discovered the Kennedy TV ad while searching the web for political ads. Kunin says he visited a website for Republican media consultant Scott Howell. From the home page, he clicked on "Net View." When asked for a password, Kunin says he guessed and gained access to the unreleased Kennedy ad.

Kunin's attorney, Steve Silton, says his client has no formal relationship with the Klobuchar campaign.

"Nobody from the Klobuchar campaign asked him or solicited him to do anything," Silton says.

Meanwhile, state Republicans are questioning Kunin's actions, calling it "digital burglary."

"I think any Minnesotan who takes a look at the facts would say this is not right," Carey says. "And if it doesn't break the law, boy, it's certainly highly unethical."

But Kunin's attorney says the site was not secure and anyone could've seen the ad.

"The URL could essentially be put into your browser and accessed directly," Silton says. "There was no firewall or any security or protection."

Kunin's law firm brought forth a couple of computer security consultants Thursday. They will examine whether the site was restricted.

"Passwords might be an indication that a site is restricted in a way, but I must emphasize, that's a maybe," says one of the consultants, Paul Luehr, a former federal attorney.

They says it's complicated and will take time to investigate.

Silton feels if this was supposed to be a secure website, it wasn't very effective.

Klobuchar's campaign says she has not seen the ad.

Kennedy's campaign says it still does not know which ad was seen, or whether it was more than one ad.

Pat Shortridge, Kennedy's campaign manager, said in a statement Thursday that an FBI agent came to Kennedy's office and asked a series of questions. Shortridge says he still wants to know why Klobuchar's campaign waited five days to notify them.

Shortridge says the FBI also contacted Scott Howell and Company Thursday. KARE 11 left a message with Howell's company Thursday, but the call was not returned.

A recent Star Tribune Minnesota Poll showed Klobuchar leading Kennedy by 24 percentage points.

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