Bloomberg reported earlier this week that that our old friend Fleischer may play an interesting role in the Plame Game scandal. Think Progress added important details about the Fleischer angle, including the fact that Fleischer was among the White House officials aboard Air Force One on a trip to Africa, where he might have had access to the classified State Department document brought aboard by Secretary of State Colin Powell that likely tipped administration officials off to Plame’s true identity.
And then, there’s this.
The special prosecutor probing the outing of a CIA spy is looking beyond who leaked Valerie Plame’s identity, seeking whether White House aides tried to cover their tracks after her name went public, sources told the Daily News.
Along with Bush political guru Karl Rove, the grand jury is investigating what role, if any, ex-White House mouthpiece Ari Fleischer may have played in the revelation that the former covert operative Plame was married to former Ambassador Joe Wilson.
“Ari’s name keeps popping up,” said one source familiar with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s probe.
Another source close to the probe added there is renewed interest in Fleischer, “based on Fitzgerald’s questions.”
A State Department memo that included background on Wilson – and who in the White House had access to it – appears to be a key to revealing who gave conservative columnist Robert Novak Plame’s name, both sources said.
Another person of interest in the case is Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff Lewis (Scooter) Libby, who was described as “totally obsessed with Wilson,” the sources said.
Interesting. Remember, Fitzgerald has already subpoenaed a Fleischer transcript and Air Force One phone records from the flight Fleischer was on.