Wilson has made many allegations about the source of his wife's outing and was the presumed source of a number of articles in the months leading up to the July Novak column. He was speaking to reporters as well and it is conceivable that many reporters did in fact know about his wife's employment with the Agency. Libby may be able to make the case that many reporters knew about Plame and attack the credibility of Russert. et al.
From a July 17 MTP transcript:
MR. RUSSERT: You also write in Time magazine this week, "This was actually my second testimony for the special prosecutor. In August 2004, I gave limited testimony about my conversation with [Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff] Scooter Libby. Libby had also given me a special waiver, and I gave a deposition in the office of my attorney. I have never discussed that conversation until now. In that testimony, I recorded an on-the-record conversation with Libby that moved to background. On the record, he denied that Cheney knew"--of--"or played any role the Wilson trip to Niger. On background, I asked Libby if he had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to Niger. Libby replied, `Yeah, I've heard that, too,' or words to that effect."
Did you interpret that as a confirmation?
MR. COOPER: I did, yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: Did Mr. Libby say at any time that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA?
MR. COOPER: No, he didn't say that.
MR. RUSSERT: But you said it to him?
MR. COOPER: I said, "Was she involved in sending him?," yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: And that she worked for the CIA?
MR. COOPER: I believe so.
Oct 5 Transcript MTP
WILSON: ...it’s pretty clear to me that the administration decided—after they had acknowledged that the 16 words didn’t rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union address, they decided to leak my wife’s name to the media. Now, I believe it was done to discourage others from coming forward. At that time there were a lot of analysts who were speaking anonymously to the press about any number of issues related to the intelligence that undergirded the decision to go to war. I felt that, however abominable the decision might be, it was rational that if you were in the administration and you did not want people talking about the intelligence or talking about what underpinned the decision to go to war, you would discourage them by destroying the credibility of the messenger who brought you the message. And this administration apparently decided the way to do that was to leak the name of my wife.
Russert: What did journalists tell you that the White House officials were saying to them?
Wilson: Four days after Bob Novak’s article came out, which outed my wife, I was—I started receiving calls from journalists and news agencies saying, first, that “The White House is saying things about you and your wife that are so off the wall we can’t even put them up,” followed by, over the weekend—so that would have been five or six days after the Novak article —a respected journalist called me up and said, “White House sources are telling us that this story is not about the 16 words”—even though the administration had acknowledged they should not have been in the State of the Union address—”this story is about Wilson and his wife.” And finally, on Monday, a week after the Novak article, I received a call from a journalist who told me, “I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He says that your wife is fair game.”
Russert: This was all after the Novak column appeared?
Wilson: That’s correct.
Russert: So White House officials could have been pointing out the Novak column to journalists, but that could not be considered a crime.
Wilson: In my judgment there were—after having read The Washington Post article, which quotes a source as saying that there were an initial two officials who contacted six journalists, my thinking on this is there were probably two waves. There was the potential crime of leaking my wife’s name by these two officers to six journalists. I don’t know the two. I don’t know the six journalists. I had assumed from conversations with Mr. Novak he was one. He has since said he wasn’t. And then I believe there was a second wave, which was the pushing of the story. The one was possibly illegal; the other was certainly unethical. And this is a tough town, understandably, but this is a town in which family members are not normally dragged into the public square.
(Videotape, August 21, 2003):
Wilson: Well, I don’t think we’re going to let this drop. At the end of the day, it’s of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me when I use that name, I measure my words.
(End videotape)
Russert: “Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.”
Wilson: The—that particular comment is taken a little bit out of context. It was written—it was taken in response to a question about whether or not I was interested in seeing the investigation go forward, which, of course, I am. Additionally, at that time, that was before The Washington Post article which cited two other leakers. So my wife thinks I probably got carried away in the spirit of the moment. So I would amend and extend my remarks. The two leakers who leaked the crime, who potentially engaged in outing a national security asset, if that was a criminal—if that was determined to have been a crime, I would love to see them frog-marched out of the White House. As to the rest of these guys who pushed this story in a way that is an abomination, even by Washington standards, I would be happy just to see them frog-marched or escorted out of the White House, out of handcuffs.
Russert: But by using the name Karl Rove at that time, you had no basis to identify him as a leaker.
Wilson: The CIA is an executive branch agency that reports to the president of the United States. The act of leaking my wife’s name was a political act. The political office resides in the White House. It seems to me to be a useful place to begin any investigation in the White House political office, which is headed by Karl Rove. Now, I don’t know if he leaked it. I don’t know if he authorized it. But I have every confidence in the world that he and the communications office of the White House continued to push this story, gave it legs, for a week after, until I appeared on an NBC program, and said this might be a violation of federal law.
Libby may or may not have lied about his contacts with the journalists. Given Wilson's contacts with the same journalists, it may be a fruitful avenue for Libby to pursue Wilson's assertions about his meetings with these journalists and what they were telling him and vice versa. It may bring up questions about the journalists' credibility and agenda.
"Wilson has made many allegations about the source of his wife's outing and was the presumed source of a number of articles in the months leading up to the July Novak column. He was speaking to reporters as well and it is conceivable that many reporters did in fact know about his wife's employment with the Agency. Libby may be able to make the case that many reporters knew about Plame and attack the credibility of Russert. et al."
The above is NOT what the Libby indictments are about. Libby will be brought to trial over alleged lies and false statements that have NOTHING to do with how many reporters knew about Plame's indentity. Libby is alleged to have lied to the grand jury and investigators about the content of his conversations with reporters. Wilson and his wife were not witnesses to these conversations. I don't think you have a very good understanding of legal proceedings in a court of law. I also don't think you've read the indictments.
Was selecting Joe Wilson to gather "intel" a "POLITICAL ACT"?