Preliminary investigation becomes full Justice Department probe

The Justice Department has decided to instigate a full-blown investigation into the Plame scandal. The White House staff was notified of the investigation by e-mail after the Justice Department decided late Monday to move from a preliminary investigation into a full probe. It is rare that the department decides to conduct a full investigation of the alleged leak of classified information.

White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales told the staff: "You must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the department's investigation." Presumably that would include telephone logs, e-mails, notes and other documents.Interestingly, while the White House counsel was notified last night of the investigation, the Justice Department told them that the "White House could wait until the next morning to notify staff and direct them to preserve relevant material, McClellan said." In addition, McClellan said that the President has instructed his staff to "cooperate fully with this investigation" and that he "wants to get to the bottom of this."

McClellan also says that the "The White House said that leaking classified information was a serious matter that should be "pursued to the fullest extent" by the Justice Department." This is good to hear, but if it's true, then why has it taken this long for them to show any interest in the case at all? It's been known that there have been suspicions that the leak came from the White House since the story broke in mid-July, and as reports since the CIA's request for an investigation became known on Friday have made clear, Bush has shown no interest at all in even asking his staff if they were involved in any way. Pledges of cooperation and concern at this point appear to be based on political expidiency rather than any genuine belief that this is actually a serious matter (which it is).

The article also notes that Wilson is backing off his accusation that Karl Rove was the leaker.

Wilson backtracked Monday, saying he had not meant to imply that Rove "was the source or the authorizer, just that I thought that it came from the White House, and Karl Rove was the personification of the White House political operation."

But Wilson also said in a telephone interview that "I have people who I have confidence in, who have indicated to me that he (Rove), at a minimum, condoned it and certainly did nothing to put a stop to it for a week after it was out there."

Some conservatives seem to be trying to spin Wilson's semi-retraction as evidence that this is somehow not a real issue. At this point, however, the story doesn't rest on Wilson's personal credibility. In fact, Wilson's credibility doesn't have much to do with it at all. There is little doubt that Plame was a covert operative, nor that her cover was blown by Robert Novak's article. The CIA has done an internal investigation and have determine that, in their opinion, there is sufficient evidence that a crime has been committed. Wilson's need to take back of some of what he's said may not make Wilson look very good, but it doesn't change the basic facts of the case.

Posted by thorswitch at September 30, 2003 02:51 PM | TrackBack