No Charges Against Former Romney Aide

New Hampshire's attorney general has closed the investigation into whether an aide to presidential hopeful Mitt Romney illegally ran a license check on a reporter last spring, with no charges filed.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said Tuesday that her office found no evidence that during the time in question, anyone had requested registration records for the car the reporter was most likely driving. She concluded no crime was committed.

She said New York Times Reporter Mark Leibovich refused to cooperate, except to say that while he was following Romney in May, a staffer told him they had run his license plate.

In a June 16 article, Leibovich wrote that while following Romney's SUV, he was "led to the shoulder and instructed to 'veer off' by a man wearing an ear piece who emerged from Mr. Romney's car." Leibovich reported that he was told, "We ran your license plate," and that no one was permitted to follow Romney's vehicle.

The staffer was Jay Garrity, who has since resigned from the campaign. He still is being investigated on allegations of impersonating a police officer in Massachusetts.

Ayotte wrote that based on the investigation and without further cooperation from Leibovich, "the investigation into Garrity reveals that no crime was committed with respect to Garrity's encounter with Leibovich on May 29, 2007."

The attorney general got involved after the head of a conservative political group, ConserveNH, sent her a copy of an Associated Press story about the incident and requested an investigation.