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A lawyer for U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi accused the Justice Department Friday of leaking information on an investigation of the Arizona congressman so he would talk about it on a wiretapped cell phone.

Renzi attorney Reid Weingarten told Magistrate Bernardo Velasco in Tucson that the leaks to media amount to misconduct. A prosecutor said the government investigated the leaks but couldn't find a source.

"This wiretap over a month recorded over 50 calls with lawyers," Weingarten said during the second day of a hearing on Renzi's request to have corruption charges dismissed. "These were real lawyers, and they were real attorney-client privileged conversations."

Renzi, a Republican who will retire in January after three terms in the 1st Congressional District, faces charges including racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, insurance fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering. Renzi has pleaded not guilty.

Weingarten said FBI agents monitoring calls on Renzi's cell phone starting in October 2006 were not supposed to listen in or record any conversations that Renzi had with lawyers, but that at least 20 were recorded, never sealed and never returned to Renzi's lawyers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino said federal law requires keeping wiretap recordings for 10 years. He said it sometimes took monitoring agents time to recognize that those talking to Renzi were attorneys. "There's no bell or whistle that flashes 'lawyer call,'" he said.

"We don't believe there's any outrageous conduct here or prejudice that gives rise to dismissal," nor for a hearing that would cause the government to prove the evidence it acquired against Renzi was inappropriately obtained, Restaino said.