We haven’t had many Plame Game details in a while, but the New York Times moves the ball forward in a big way today.
The investigation is no longer just about which White House officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent, but also looking into who may have lied to cover up the crime.
Prosecutors investigating whether someone in the Bush administration improperly disclosed the identity of a C.I.A. officer have expanded their inquiry to examine whether White House officials lied to investigators or mishandled classified information related to the case, lawyers involved in the case and government officials say.
In looking at violations beyond the original focus of the inquiry, which centered on a rarely used statute that makes it a felony to disclose the identity of an undercover intelligence officer intentionally, prosecutors have widened the range of conduct under scrutiny and for the first time raised the possibility of bringing charges peripheral to the leak itself.
The expansion of the inquiry’s scope comes at a time when prosecutors, after a hiatus of about a month, appear to be preparing to seek additional testimony before a federal grand jury, lawyers with clients in the case said. It is not clear whether the renewed grand jury activity represents a concluding session or a prelude to an indictment.
Needless to say, the Republicans are starting to get a little nervous about all this.
The broadened scope is a potentially significant development that represents exactly what allies of the Bush White House feared when Attorney General John Ashcroft removed himself from the case last December and turned it over to Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in Chicago.
Republican lawyers worried that the leak case, in the hands of an aggressive prosecutor, might grow into an unwieldy, time-consuming and politically charged inquiry, like the sprawling independent counsel inquiries of the 1990’s, which distracted and damaged the Clinton administration.
Heaven forbid! At least two officials at the Bush White House undermined national security and committed a felony and Republicans are worried about Bush getting the same treatment Clinton received? You’ll forgive me if I find their worries rather shallow.
Regardless, it’s safe to say from this report that the Plame Game investigation is heating up. Moreover, indictments, should they be forthcoming, may arrive just in time to have a maximum political impact.
Not only is this scandal far from over, it also remains potentially devastating for the Bush White House. Stay tuned.