With all that’s going on in the political world right now, it’s easy to forget that the Bush White House is still under a criminal investigation — a fact that most voters seem to be completely oblivious to because the Plame Game scandal never generated the media attention it deserved. Nevertheless, there has been a pretty significant development.
The Washington Post reported today that investigators have learned who at the White House contacted DC political reporters with the identity of an undercover CIA agent. Unfortunately, however, we still don’t know who that person is.
A Washington Post reporter’s confidential source has revealed his or her identity to the special prosecutor conducting the CIA leak inquiry, a development that provides investigators with a fact they have been pursuing in the nearly year-long probe.
Post reporter Walter Pincus, who had been subpoenaed to testify to a grand jury in the case, instead gave a deposition yesterday in which he recounted his conversation with the source, whom he has previously identified as an “administration official.” Pincus said he did not name the source and agreed to be questioned only with the source’s approval.
“I understand that my source has already spoken to the special prosecutor about our conversation on July 12 [2003], and that the special prosecutor has dropped his demand that I reveal my source. Even so, I will not testify about his or her identity,” Pincus said in a prepared statement.
“The source has not discharged us from the confidentiality pledge,” said The Post’s executive editor, Leonard Downie Jr.
Well, I guess we should call this progress. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald now appears to know at least one of the White House aides who was doing the leaking in the first place. Of course, we don’t know anything about the details — who it is, whether person has struck a deal, whether he or she is facing a criminal indictment, etc.
Indeed, just when it sounds as Fitzgerald is near the end of the investigation, we learn that he’s still seeking new information.
But even as Fitzgerald appeared to have reached the end of one investigative thread, he unspooled yet another yesterday, sending new broadly worded subpoenas for documents and testimony to Time magazine and one of its reporters, Matthew Cooper. Under threat of jail for contempt of court, Cooper agreed to be questioned three weeks ago about conversations he had with I. Lewis Libby, a senior aide to Vice President Cheney.
That’s an interesting curveball. Cooper was done, he’d answered Fitzgerald’s questions, and he’d avoided a contempt charge. Now he has to consider yet another subpoena. What’s this all about? Time will tell.
One last thing. The way the Post story is structured, it suggests that Libby, long suspected to be the principal suspect in this controversy, was not the person who spoke to the Post’s Walter Pincus about Plame.
Pincus answered questions about Libby as well. Both he and Cooper said they did so with Libby’s approval, and both said that their conversations with Libby did not touch on the identity of Wilson’s wife.
Fitzgerald had focused on Libby as the possible leaker of Plame’s name and identity, but the new subpoenas to Time suggest he may be rethinking that theory. Four reporters have now testified at Libby’s urging that he did not disclose Plame’s name or identity to them.
So much for having this probe wrapped up before the election. Don’t get me wrong; I believe a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the scandal is paramount, but I also believe voters should have the opportunity to know about the White House criminal investigation and the results of that probe before heading to the polls in November. Given the limited time remaining, that seems highly unlikely at this point.