Think Progress ::
Gonzales Raises Questions For Andy Card To Answer
Writing in the New York Times,
Frank Rich highlights a troubling issue that arose from early on in the leak investigation:
As White House counsel, [Alberto Gonzales] was the one first notified that the Justice Department, at the request of the C.I.A., had opened an investigation into the outing of Joseph Wilson's wife. That notification came at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2003, but it took Mr. Gonzales 12 more hours to inform the White House staff that it must "preserve all materials" relevant to the investigation.
On CBS's Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer noted that this time gap would have "give[n] people time to shred documents and do any number of things." Gonzales argued that he asked for and received permission from the Justice Department to wait until the next morning to order White House staff to preserve all documents regarding their contacts with journalists about Valerie Plame. But he did tell one person the night before
SCHIEFFER: Let me just ask you the obvious question, Mr. Attorney General. Did you tell anybody at the White House, get ready for this, here it comes?
GONZALES: I, I told one person, ah, in, in the White House of, of the notification, and, and —
SCHIEFFER: Who?
GONZALES: and immediately - ah, I told the chief of staff. And immediately the next morning, I told the President and, shortly thereafter, there was a notification sent out to all the members of the White House staff.
Check out the video of this at
Crooks and Liars.
So the one person who knew that an investigation was underway was Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who also happened to be
aboard Air Force One in July 2003 with Ari Fleischer, Colin Powell, and the top
secret State Department document that contained the identity of Valerie Wilson. So, did Card tell Rove or Libby or anyone for that matter the night before Alberto Gonzales sent out the email to staff that they would soon be asked to preserve all documents?
From the Comments to this post:
It's fascinating when you locate the exact 12 hours where you can be almost certain that a crime occurred... it's a grand detective game. - - Comment by Miles - July 24, 2005
Gonzales said that it was late - after 8:00 pm when he called the White House, and that most of the staff had left for the day. By checking WH logs Fitzgerald would know who was there at the time of Gonzales' call - AND if anyone returned that night after the calls were made. I think it would be very interesting to know who was in the WH at the time, and who returned shortly afterword. - - Comment by dano347 - July 24, 2005
Matic
Goat
BabelFish
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