Illegal Wiretapping of Rival Legislative Speaker

Ma's government was found to have used prosecutors to illegally wiretap the phone of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng — a rival within Ma's own KMT party — as part of an effort to remove Wang from his position after Wang was accused of improperly lobbying on a separate legal case. Taiwan's courts later ruled the surveillance illegal, and public backlash over the scandal, dubbed the "September political storm," badly damaged Ma's standing within his own party.