Leak Probe Wants Air Force
One Records
CBS News
NEW YORK
March 5, 2004
(CBS/AP) A federal grand jury probing the leak of a CIA
officer's identity has subpoenaed the records of phone calls from
Air Force One, the president's plane, made the week before the
name of the officer was published in a July newspaper column,
Newsday reported Friday.
The three subpoenas to President Bush's Executive Office also
seek the July records created by an internal task force called
the White House Iraq Group, which was created to publicize the
threat of Saddam Hussein, Newsday said. The newspaper cited
documents that it obtained.
In addition, it said, the grand jury wants records of White
House contacts with more than two-dozen journalists and news
organizations.
The subpoenas were issued to the White House on Jan. 22,
Newsday said. The grand jury is trying to find out whether there
were violations to a federal law that prohibits the intentional
disclosure of the identity of an undercover agent by officials
with security clearances.
The investigation stemmed from concerns that officials in the
Bush administration had divulged the name of CIA officer Valerie
Plame to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph C.
Wilson IV, because of his criticism of the administration's Iraq
policy.
"The president has always said we would fully comply with the
investigation, and the White House counsel's office has directed
the staff to fully comply," White House spokesman Erin Healy told
Newsday.
Two of the subpoenas are focused on July White House events,
contacts and records around the time of a July 14 column by
syndicated columnist Robert Novak that said senior administration
officials told him Plame was a CIA officer.
Wilson had a few weeks earlier emerged to report that he had
personally investigated the U.S. allegation that Iraq tried to
buy uranium from Niger, and found no substantiation for it.
A third subpoena is a repeat of a Justice Department request
to the White House that sought records about staff contacts with
Novak and two Newsday reporters.
White House staff records also were sought regarding contacts
with several other news organizations including The Associated
Press, The Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, The New York
Times and The Wall Street Journal, Newsday said. There has been
no record of journalists being subpoenaed.
At least four current and former officials involved in the
White House communications operation have testified before the
grand jury, according to people familiar with the probe.
Press secretary Scott McClellan and Adam Levine, who formerly
worked in the press office, testified before the panel in
February. A deputy in McClellan's office, Claire Buchan, said she
appeared before the panel on Jan. 30.
One person close to the investigation said that Levine was
questioned mainly about White House press office procedures.
Mary Matalin, a Republican consultant who headed Vice
President Dick Cheney's communications office until December,
confirmed that she testified on Jan. 21.
A number of other current or former officials have been
interviewed by the FBI, including top Bush political adviser Karl
Rove, communications chief Dan Bartlett, former spokesman Ari
Fleischer and Cheney spokeswoman Cathie Martin, said two sources
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Washington Post reports the FBI has also talked to Cheney
chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, along with Levine,
Matalin and McClellan.
The Post reports the FBI has conducted aggressive questioning
covering White House emails that were turned over to the
investigators, cell phone calls, phone logs and even specific
conversations with reporters.
Investigators earlier tried to encourage journalists to talk
by asking White House staff to sign waivers freeing reporters of
any promises of confidentiality. But according to The Post, most
officials were advised by the lawyers not to sign, and did
not.
President Bush made the Niger allegation in the Jan. 28, 2003
State of the Union speech, saying, "The British government has
learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant
quantities of uranium from Africa."
That was only one of several occasions that same month where
the administration made a similar claim. The Post reports the
claim was repeated on at least six occasions around the time of
the State of the Union speech.
After Wilson came forward in July, the White House retracted
that allegation. Wilson now is working as a foreign policy
adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and has
made several campaign appearances for the Massachusetts
senator.
After a request from the CIA, the Justice Department launched
an investigation into the leak on Sept. 30.
Attorney General John Ashcroft removed himself in December
from the inquiry to avoid the appearance of a conflict of
interest. Democrats had called on Ashcroft to step aside from the
investigation from the outset. U.S. Attorney Patrick J.
Fitzgerald of Chicago, a career prosecutor, is leading the
probe.
©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
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