Robert Novak, the conservative journalist who finds himself in the unenviable position of having helped start a White House scandal, began trying to distance himself from the controversy yesterday. I don’t think it worked.
Novak announced yesterday, “Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson’s report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing.”
There’s two things wrong with this. First, it appears Novak is unnecessarily parsing the word “call.” As a matter of legality, it hardly seems important who called whom. He was talking to two “senior administration officials” and they leaked classified information to him about an undercover CIA agent. Whether his phone rang before getting the tip is irrelevant.
Besides, it wasn’t just about Novak. We learned from the Washington Post on Sunday that two White House officials “called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife.”
In addition, the Post also reported today that another journalist “confirmed receiving a call from an administration official providing the same information about Wilson’s wife before the Novak column appeared on July 14 in The Post and other newspapers. The journalist, who asked not to be identified because of possible legal ramifications, said that the information was provided as part of an effort to discredit Wilson.”
In other words, Novak wants the world to know that he received the leak but that the White House didn’t call him. That’s fine, Bob, but they called a whole lot of other people.
The other flaw in Novak’s statement from yesterday is that it contradicts something he said in July.
As I reported back in July, Novak told Newsday that the White House approached him with the leak and he used it assuming his sources were leaking it elsewhere.
“I didn’t dig it out, it was given to me,” Novak said three months ago. “They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.” He added, “I figured if they gave it to me, they’d give it to others. I’m a reporter. Somebody gives me information and it’s accurate. I generally use it.” That’s a far different story from what he was saying yesterday.
One other thing. Novak also said yesterday, “When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson’s involvement in the mission for her…they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else.”
This is just stupid and Novak is being intentionally obtuse about this point. He contacted the CIA, the CIA asked him not to use this information, and he used it anyway. I recognize that he’s within his rights as a journalist to use the leak, and I’m not one of those people who’d like to see Novak prosecuted over this, but this argument is really unconvincing.
Novak used the Plame info after the CIA asked him not to. He can try and rationalize all he wants about the CIA’s request not being adamant enough for him, but that won’t change the fact that he screwed up. Big time.