In a major new article in the
WaPo, "Steno" Sue Schmidt reports on the latest twists and turns in the Fitzgerald investigation of who outed Valerie Plame.
Ms. Schmidt, who consistently parrots White House spin, reports that the timing of the Novak story, which was published on July 14 is now in question. Apparently, White House officals could have read the Novak story as early as July 11 when it was available over the AP wire. Here is a key paragraph from the article:
"This lawyer (a lawyer for one of the White House witnesses who talked to the grand jury -- ed.) and two others involved in the case said Fitzgerald has been trying to sort out whether White House officials mounted a campaign to leak Plame's identity, or whether they were merely spinning information that Novak's column had already put into the public domain. Prosecutors are also investigating who originally gave Novak the information."
So this is the latest White House defense strategy.
Note the nondenial denial in the above paragraph. There is no doubt the White House mounted a campaign to widely spread idea that what Wilson found in Niger was not the real story -- the real story was the role of his wife in setting up a "boondoggle." Their lawyers are arguing that they are not technically guilty of a crime.
The original leakers to Novak could not make that argument. Very little is said in the article about the original leakers.
There is a lot more detail in this story, one of the longest ever written about this investigation, including a list of the officials who have spoken to the grand jury or the FBI. It reads like a who's who of the White House:
Bush
Cheney
Rice
Powell
Rove
Scooter Libby
Mary Matalin
Scott McClellan
Dan Bartlett
Catherine Martin
Claire Buchan
Adam Levine