(2005-11-16) — Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who secured grand jury indictments against a top Bush administration official last month, today announced he may be close to discovering who told Valerie Plame that she was an undercover CIA agent.
Mr. Fitzgerald refused to release any names, but sources close to the probe said evidence indicates that the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward may have revealed Ms. Plame’s covert status to her.
The prosecutor declined to comment on Mr. Woodward’s possible connection to the case, instead he focused on Ms. Plame’s apparent ignorance of her role at the Central Intelligence Agency.
“In the months, and even years, leading up to July 2003, Valerie Plame was not behaving like someone who knew she was a covert agent,” said Mr. Fitzgerald. “The woman friends knew as Mrs. Joe Wilson seems to have learned of her undercover status at about the same time a reference to her appeared in Robert Novak’s syndicated column.”
The prosecutor said it may be a violation of federal law to reveal a CIA agent’s covert status to the agent.
“We’re looking at what’s called ‘deep deep cover’ in the intel community,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “In other words, the CIA unwittingly may have been using Mrs. Wilson as an undercover agent without her knowledge, or the knowledge of anyone else at the Agency.”
Meanwhile, as former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby awaits trial on five counts of hindering the CIA leak probe, Mr. Novak and Mr. Woodward remain at large.
4 responses so far ↓
1 The Right Nation // Nov 16, 2005 at 1:01 pm
WoodwardGate
Richard Nixon is surely roaring with laughter in his coffin. Bob Woodward, the journalist that with colleague Carl Bernstein discovered the Watergate scandal in the ‘70s, is involved in the so-called Plamegate, the investigation carried on by Patrick…
2 Badger Blogger // Nov 16, 2005 at 6:00 pm
Scooter Libby case coming apart
Liberal hero Bob Woodward is tossing a huge monkey wrench into the Scooter Libby indictment. He has testified that he knew about Valerie Plame about a month before her identity was publicly exposed. He has testified that neither Scooter Libby nor Car…
3 tdaxp // Nov 16, 2005 at 8:20 pm
New Bob Woodward / Valerie Plame Scandal Emerges
“Sources: Plame Learned Covert Status from Woodward,” by Scott Ott, Scrappleface, 16 November 2005, http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/04/26/new_john_bolton_scandal_emerges.html (from The Corner).
An extreme form of 5GW, apparently:
Speci…
4 Crazy Politicos Rantings // Nov 18, 2005 at 4:54 am
Joe Wilson’s Nightmare Grows
It was bad enough a few weeks ago when Scooter Libbey, and not Karl Rove had to appear before a judge for a crime other than outing Valerie Plame
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