Romney Staff Involved In 2 Investigations

The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation into whether presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's staff might have made an illegal traffic stop, the same day a group of conservative activists with a connection to rival Sen. John McCain complained Thursday.

A Romney campaign aide is also under investigation by police in Massachusetts for allegedly impersonating a state trooper, according to a published report.

The aide, Jay Garrity, allegedly called a Wilmington, Mass., company on a cell phone last month and threatened to cite the driver of a company van for driving erratically in the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston, according to a story in Friday's Boston Globe.

In a recorded phone call to the plumbing company, a man identifies himself as "Trooper Garrity with the Massachusetts State Police," according to the newspaper, which obtained a copy of the tape. There is no Trooper Garrity at the state police barracks that patrols the tunnel, a state police spokesman said.

Garrity was not working for the Romney campaign the day of the alleged call, Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said.

A spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney confirmed that there is an investigation into the phone call.

In the New Hampshire incident, ConserveNH President Paul Nagy wrote a letter to Attorney General Kelly Ayotte asking her to check if Romney aides illegally stopped a New York Times reporter, checked his license plate against a database and overstepped their role.

"We want attention to the indiscretion," said Nagy, who said he is not supporting a candidate. "I think there is a bunch of arrogance involved in this. We just don't do that to guests when they visit our state during the presidential primary season."

One of ConserveNH's founder, Patrick Hynes, works for McCain's political action committee, Straight Talk America.

Nagy said the letter was sent independently of the McCain campaign and said he was unaware that Hynes is on McCain's payroll.

"I know nothing about that. I could not tell you who any of the members of the board are supporting," said Nagy, who is a critic of McCain's immigration plan.

McCain's New Hampshire spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker denied any connection between the campaign and the letter.

Romney's campaign on Wednesday denied a report that aides pulled over Times reporter Mark Leibovich, who was trailing the former Massachusetts governor's caravan in New Hampshire, checked his license plates and told him to leave.

"I can confirm that we were asked to look into the matter," said Jane Young, chief of the criminal justice bureau at the Attorney General's Office. "We are officially looking into the matter."

Romney does not have state-provided protection or a Secret Service detail. However, he does travel between appearances in a motorcade of black sport utility vehicles, and his aides wear earpieces.

New Hampshire law does not allow private citizens to access to license plate databases, nor allow them to pull over fellow citizens.

Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades said the campaign did not stop Leibovich and did not run the license plate.

Romney's campaign said the group became lost on back roads after a May 29 stop at Harvey's Bakery in Dover. A construction detour confused them, the cars stopped, and the staffer walked back to chat with the unknown car.