Was Department of Justice Targeting Supporters of John Edwards?

A Harper's Magazine writer, Scott Horton, who has been following what he describes as the political prosecutions of the Bush Justice Department has an interesting article on the Harper's website dated September 22, 2007. This is the first paragraph of the article:

In the last two weeks, two sources, one of them inside of the Justice Department, have told me that a scheme was hatched in the upper echelons of the Bush Administration shortly after it took office in 2001 or early in 2002. The project identified John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as likely Democratic challengers to President Bush, and identified prominent trial lawyers around the United States as the likely financial vehicle for Edward’s rise. It directed that their campaign finance records be fly-specked, and that offenses not be treated as administrative matters but rather as serious criminal offenses.

Horton claims that prosecutions of trial lawyers for campaign finance violations have actually taken place, but that the lawyers involved don't want to call attention to them because it would adversely affect their law practices. Horton believes that Rove was behind this effort, but that both Gonzales and Ashcroft knew about it and signed off. It is both fascinating and chilling.