“Tea Party Republican Christine O’Donnell, whose failed U.S. Senate campaign already has been dubbed a ‘scandal’ by a national ethics group, is now the subject of a federal criminal probe to determine if she illegally used campaign money to pay personal expenses, [says] a federal source in a position” The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., reports.

The Associated Press has a similar report: “Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell to determine if the former Senate candidate broke the law by using campaign money to pay personal expenses, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation.”

According to the News Journal, O’Donnell said today that she’s not aware of any such investigation, but that “if it is happening, of course we’re going to cooperate, because we have nothing to hide.”

As NPR’s Andrea Seabrook reported in September, O’Donnell said during the campaign that she was paying half the rent on her home with money from campaign donations — and that was OK because she was running the campaign from her house. Copyright 2010 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.