Posted on 06/03/2004 10:07:54 AM PDT by TexKat
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday he was ready to cooperate in the grand jury investigation of who leaked the name of a covert CIA operative last year and that he had consulted with an attorney to determine if he needs legal advice.
"I've told our administration that we'll fully cooperate with their investigation" Bush said. "I want to know the truth. I'm willing to cooperate myself."
Bush's move suggests the president anticipates being questioned by prosecutors about whether he could shine any light on the case. But there is no indication that Bush is a target of the investigation.
"In terms of whether or not I need advice from counsel, this is a criminal matter, it's a serious matter," the president said. "I have met with an attorney to determine whether or not I need his advice, and if I deem I need his advice, I'll probably hire him."
Earlier, Bush's chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, confirmed that Bush had contacted Washington attorney Jim Sharp. "In the event the president needs his advice, I expect he probably would retain him," McClellan said. There is no indication Bush has been questioned yet.
A federal grand jury has questioned numerous White House and administration officials to learn who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to the news media. Wilson has charged that officials made the disclosure in an effort to discredit him.
Bush has been an outspoken critics of leaks, saying they can be very damaging, but he has expressed doubts that the government's investigation will pinpoint who was responsible. While Bush has said he welcomed the leak investigation, it has been an awkward development for a president who promised to bring integrity and leadership to the White House after years of Republican criticism and investigations of the Clinton administration.
Even though he has a White House counsel, Bush is dependent on outside lawyers for private matters. A memo distributed to the staff last year reminded officials that the counsel's office works solely for the president in his official capacity and is not a private attorney for anyone.
Democrats seized on the news to criticize the president.
"It speaks for itself that the president initially claimed he wanted to get to the bottom of this, but now he's suddenly retained a lawyer," said Jano Cabrera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites). "Bush shouldn't drag the country through grand juries and legal maneuvering. President Bush should come forward with what he knows and come clean with the American people."
Plame was first identified by syndicated columnist and TV commentator Robert Novak in a column last July. Novak said his information came from administration sources.
Wilson has said he believes his wife's name was leaked because of his criticism of Bush administration claims that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger, which Wilson investigated for the CIA and found to be untrue.
Disclosure of an undercover officer's identity can be a federal crime. The grand jury has heard from witnesses and combed through thousands of pages of documents turned over by the White House, but returned no indictments.
The probe is being handled by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, appointed after Attorney General John Ashcroft stepped aside from case because of his political ties to the White House.
Absent a breakthrough from the documents or a cooperating witness, prosecutors may be forced to try to identify the leaker through Novak or other reporters. However, journalists pressed by the prosecution could assert a First Amendment privilege to protect their sources.
Wilson has suggested in a book that the leaker was Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney. But Wilson's book, "The Politics of Truth," gave no conclusive evidence for the claim.
The White House denied the claim and accused Wilson of seeking to bolster the campaign of Democrat John Kerry, for whom he has acted as a foreign policy adviser.
Wilson also said it's possible the leak came from Elliott Abrams, a figure in the Reagan administration Iran-Contra affair and now a member of Bush's National Security Council. And Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, may have circulated information about Wilson and Plame "in administration and neoconservative circles" even if Rove was not himself the leaker, Wilson wrote.
Another possibility is that two lower-level officials in Cheney's office John Hannah or David Wurmser leaked Plame's identity at the behest of higher-ups "to keep their fingerprints off the crime," Wilson speculated.
BTW, the prison abuse was not authorized by our government, it was being investigated before the media brouhaha erupted. What, pray tell, are you throwing that out as if the administration approved or condoned such activity, hm?
What do you know about the dreaded Enron and Halliburton? Evidently not much.
Mentioned what to Tenet, Ashcroft or Rice? He didn't even know about Wilson going to Niger. Tenet didn't even know until well after the fact.
Novak has stated publicy the leak did not come from the WH. What triggered it was Wilson going around talking about wanting Rove "frog marched" out of the WH in handcuffs. There's plenty to investigate, but rest assured, wrongdoing from the Bush WH will not be the finding.
Yes, the frenzy certainly was "press created". They acted like there was a government cover-up. They acted like the treatment was authorized from "up the chain of command". There was a whole circus created thanks to the deceptive reporting of the press. They still try to beat the story along, but it has long since died.
Thanx for backing me up dude.
At this point I hope you realize I did not back you up, man.
If you want to say it was exaggerated, thats fine. But 'created' by the media, it was not.
I hope you can distinguish between the original fact based story and the circus that ensued once the pictures were given to the press.
It was more than "exaggerated". Try outright misrepresented and presented in a false light.
The story was whipped up and stirred up and presented as something it was not.
I'm sorry. Thanks for the note.
my thoughts EXACTLY when I read that title. The media is so BIASED it makes me ill!!!!!!
"Do you think letting criminals that violate the laws of the US and disclose 'classified' info should not be persued & punished?"
It would appear Valerie Plame had not been a super-duper spy gal for several years...if this excerpt is correct. If she had been in deep cover up until her name was revealed, it would have been different. Joe Wilson is milking this for all it's worth; he sure appears to enjoy the spotlight. Just my opinion; counts for nothing to anyone else.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/5/9/152348.shtml
Sunday, May. 9, 2004 3:18 PM EDT
In October, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reported: "The C.I.A. suspected that [master spy] Aldrich Ames had given Mrs. Wilson's name [along with those of other spies] to the Russians before his espionage arrest in 1994."
At the time, Kristof noted, Wilson's wife was brought home for safety reasons and "was already in transition away from undercover work to management."
No problem.
Thank you for the apology
Sorry we got off on such a bad note.
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