Noted.

THE WIRE: Could it be more embarrassing? Jane Harman, the hawkish, pro-Israel California Democrat, tells a suspected Israeli spy that she'll do what she can to quash an espionage trial for two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and then ends the conversation with the 24-ish: "This conversation doesn't exist." But it does. And it's been caught on tape by a court-sanctioned, legal FBI wiretap that got leaked to and published by Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein. Oops.

About four years ago, the FBI and the Justice Department began investigating Harman. The charge? That she'd told AIPAC she would help kill the indictment of the ex-AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, if AIPAC would help her get appointed as chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

According to Stein, the FBI investigation of Harman was halted by none other than Alberto Gonzales, who did Harman a favor in order to secure her support for the illegal, warrantless NSA surveillance program. In particular, Gonzales wanted Harman to help suppress a New York Times report on the program. Harman denies any wrongdoing, and exactly what she did--whether she intervened with the Justice Department on behalf of Rosen and Weissman, whether she talked to the Bush White House, and what she did vis-à-vis the Times on behalf of Gonzales-- is murky, though the Times does report that she called the paper's Washington bureau chief and urged him not to run the story. Mixed up in all of it is Haim Saban, the billionaire mogul and Democratic funder, who reportedly lobbied Harman to kill the AIPAC investigation.

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