Mitt Romney appears to have escaped from what could have been a major embarrassment after New Hampshire's attorney general concluded a former aide did not do anything wrong in stopping a newspaper reporter who was following Romney's campaign around the state in May.

A New York Times reporter started the row when he wrote in an article that a Romney aide — who he didn't identify, but who has since been identified as Jay Garrity — made him drive to the road shoulder, told him to "veer off" from following the campaign SUV and told him they "ran your license plate." That would have been a violation of state law.

But in a letter closing the case, the chief of the attorney general's criminal justice bureau said the reporter, Mark Leibovich, refused to cooperate in the investigation. The office also said it found no evidence anyone ran a check on Leibovich's license plates.

Garrity has since resigned as director of operations for the Romney campaign.

He worked worked for Romney during the latter's single term as governor of Massachusetts, and has also been accused of impersonating a state police trooper in that state by making a phone call.

But in a statement yesterday, Garrity's lawyers said that, too, is likely to be cleared up.

"In Massachusetts a voice analysis shows unequivocally that Jay did not make the call to Wayne's Drains in which a man claimed to be 'Trooper Garrity,' and the call was made from a telephone which has no connection whatsoever to Jay Garrity," the statement said. "That information was provided to the Suffolk County district attorney's office."

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times