The Plame Game scandal just keeps percolating along, doesn’t it? The White House is apparently worried about just how high the federal investigation can go — Bush has hired an outside lawyer to represent him.
President Bush has consulted an outside lawyer about representing him if he is questioned as part of the grand jury investigation into the leak of a CIA officer’s identity, administration officials said yesterday.
The officials said Bush is poised to hire Jim Sharp of Washington, a former assistant U.S. attorney who heads his own firm, if prosecutors or FBI agents want to interview the president about the Valerie Plame case or if he is called by a federal grand jury investigating the matter.
The early spin out of the White House was that the move was largely a precautionary step. Bush hired a lawyer, just in case investigators wanted to chat with him. And even if they did, Bush would be a helpful witness, not a suspect, the argument goes.
But there’s no realistic way to downplay the significance of this development. The White House is under a criminal investigation and the president — fresh off his work of honor and dignity restoration — is preparing to be a part of this probe into a serious felony that jeopardized U.S. national security.
For months, the conventional wisdom was the criminal probe was focusing on low-level players in the administration. Obviously, that’s not the case. You can’t get any higher that Bush.
There’s some question as to whether Bush has already been asked to appear before a grand jury.
[White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan] deflected questions about whether Bush had been asked to appear before the grand jury, which is investigating who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to the news media.
Seems like a pretty straightforward question; it’s interesting that the White House doesn’t want to answer it.
And as Josh Marshall noted, the next logical question, which so far hasn’t been asked, is whether Dick Cheney has secured counsel for himself. After all, most of the Plame Game speculation has centered around Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and Cheney NSC aide Elliott Abrams. Given the circumstances, if anyone should get outside counsel, it’s Cheney. For that matter, has Cheney already been called to testify? Does he plan to?
This is a scandal that won’t go away. With just five months before the election, the Plame Game may yet have a dramatic impact on this campaign. Stay tuned.