Considering that Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s soon-to-be attorney general, was in the middle of the Plame Game scandal, it’s somewhat reassuring to hear that he won’t have any role in the ongoing investigation.
Alberto R. Gonzales agreed on Wednesday to remove himself from oversight of the politically charged investigation into the disclosure of a C.I.A. officer’s identity if he is confirmed as attorney general.
The assurance came at a private 45-minute meeting between Mr. Gonzales, the current White House counsel who is President Bush’s choice to succeed John Ashcroft, and Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. Mr. Schumer has led the push in Congress for an aggressive investigation into the disclosure of the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame.
“He committed himself unequivocally to recusing himself from the Plame investigation,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. “I asked him would he do it; he thought about it for maybe 10 seconds, and he said, ‘Yes, I’ll recuse myself.’ “
It shouldn’t have taken 10 seconds, of course; Gonzales should have known well in advance that this question was coming and should have realized that he’d had little choice but to recuse himself from the matter altogether. Still, I’m glad Gonzales is going to do the right thing.
(Just as an aside, it’s amazing how far my standards have dropped. I used to be glad when high-ranking government officials exceeded minimal expectations and served the public good. Now, I’ve grown so accustomed to Bush administration malfeasance, it’s an absolute delight to learn that officials are doing the bare minimum to comply with a professional code of conduct. The phrase “soft bigotry of low expectations” comes to mind…)
And speaking of the ongoing White House criminal investigation, some of you may have missed a story in the Post the day after Thanksgiving on how the probe is going.
A federal prosecutor investigating whether administration officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative has directed considerable effort at learning how widely the operative’s identity was disseminated to reporters before it was published last year by columnist Robert D. Novak, according to people with knowledge of the case.
Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is trying to pinpoint precisely when and from whom several journalists learned that Joseph C. Wilson IV, an outspoken critic of the administration, was sent on an Iraq-related intelligence mission after a recommendation by his wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA employee. Plame’s name first appeared in a July 14, 2003, column by Novak.
The timing could be a critical element in assessing whether classified information was illegally disclosed. If White House aides directed reporters to information that had already been published by Novak, they may not have disclosed classified information.
This isn’t new, but it’s an interesting review. Fitzgerald (and the rest of the world) realize that at least two White House aides called reporters about Plame’s identity. The criminal angle comes down to whether those calls preceded Bob Novak’s now-infamous July 14 column or not.
Based on what has long been known publicly, there is little doubt that some White House aides circulated the Plame story a week after Novak’s column appeared, in an apparent effort to cast doubt on Wilson’s credibility. Wilson has said he received calls from two NBC television reporters, on July 20 and July 21, who said White House officials were telling them that Wilson’s wife’s role was the real story.
In questioning reporters for The Washington Post, NBC and Time, prosecutors have shown a particular interest in the events of July 12, reporters and their attorneys have said. Word that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA had by then circulated to some media organizations, though the origin of the information is not publicly known.
While Novak’s column did not run until Monday, July 14, it could have been seen by people in the White House or the media as early as Friday, July 11, when the Creators Syndicate distributed it over the Associated Press wire.
Of course, we’d still need to know how Novak learned of this in the first place…