When the Sandy Berger story first broke, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellen said he was just keeping apraised by what he saw in the papers.
“What we’ve seen is, and what we know is what has been reported in the news media. It is apparently an investigation that is underway, and the questions are best directed at Department of Justice.”
I don’t mean to be overly picky here, but in general, when McClellan says “we,” he’s talking about the White House. That’s what the presidential press secretaries do.
Wednesday, that “we” became an “I” as McClellan admitted that “a few” people in the White House counsel’s office knew about the Berger investigation months ago.
[M]y understanding is that this investigation has been going on for several months and that some officials in our Counsel’s Office were contacted, as part of the investigation.”
And yesterday, the circle expanded yet again.
For the second day in a row, administration officials said yesterday that more of President Bush’s aides knew about an investigation of former Clinton national security adviser Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger than the White House originally acknowledged.
[…]
A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that some National Security Council officials knew Berger — who has resigned from his position as informal adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry — was suspected of mishandling National Archives documents that were being sought by the commission.
I wonder why the White House keeps changing its story? As a rule, when these guys keep offering new versions of the same information, they have something to hide.
Former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, who is serving as a spokesman for Berger during the controversy, said the expanding circle of officials who the White House acknowledges knew of the criminal investigation heightens his suspicion about the timing of the disclosure that Berger is under investigation.
“This is the third day in a row that the story has changed,” Lockhart said. “Did the political operation know? Did [adviser] Karl Rove know? I think it’s time for them to come clean, say what they knew, when they knew it, and what role if anything they had in leaking it.”
Sounds like a reasonable request.