FBI Now Investigating Claims of Alleged Illegal Activity During Bachmann Presidential Campaign

The FBI has launched an investigation into Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign, according to KCCI Channel 8 in Des Moines.

The Urbandale Police Department, the Polk County Attorneys Office, the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee, the Federal Elections Commission and the Office of Congressional Ethics are already investigating claims ranging from ethics violations to criminal activity in Bachmann's 2012 presidential bid, the television station reports.

One allegation claims Republican Sen. Kent Sorenson, of Milo, was paid for campaign work on behalf of Bachmann, who won the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011 but finished last in the January 2012 Iowa Caucuses.

Iowa Senate ethics rules bar paid employment with political campaigns.

Sorenson denies payment and says the investigation is a political witch hunt.

Also, a volunteer from Johnston who worked on the campaign, sued Bachmann over a stolen email list used by the presidential campaign.

Barb Heki served as a coordinator of home-school supporters for Bachmann’s presidential campaign that participated in the January 2012 Iowa caucuses. She claimed Sorenson stole an email list from her computer in Bachmann’s Urbandale campaign office in 2011.

According to the Star Tribune, Bachmann met with Heki's lawyers in Des Moines on May 6. The newspaper also reported that Bachmann was negotiating a settlement with Heki.

Sorenson's attorney told Patch last year he committed no crime, but Bachmann campaign adviser Eric Woolson said in a sworn affidavit that Sorenson admitted taking the email list from Heki.

Mark Weinhardt, a Des Moines attorney, was appointed to the case as independent special counsel in May. The Iowa State Senate Ethics Committee voted May 1 to seek a special investigator to look into the claims.

John Gilmore, an attorney for Bachmann's chief of staff Andy Parrish, told KCCI the FBI plans to interview his client next week. Another source confirmed to the television station the FBI also has been contacting them.

The FBI would not confirm nor deny an investigation, KCCI reported.