Does anyone remember that there is a leaker inside the administration? This is from the November 26, 2004, Washington Post:

Prosecutors have questioned numerous witnesses, some of them repeatedly, to learn whether two senior White House aides actively peddled Plame’s identity to more than half a dozen reporters before Novak revealed it in print — an allegation made by an anonymous administration official in a Sept. 28, 2003, Washington Post article.

Plame’s name was leaked to reporters “purely and simply for revenge,” the official alleged in the report.

“Prosecutors are interested in the sourcing of that story and whether it’s accurate. If it is not accurate, they would like to know that and move along,” said an attorney for a witness in the case.

:::flip:::
It seems that someone in the ‘administration’ was outraged enough by the thuggery toward Wilson and his wife, that he/she felt compelled to speak out.

Whoever the leaker was, they are a real danger to the administration. How much do they know? Are they quietly cooperating with Fitzgerald? Or was the leaker actually a high level person in the CIA?

The CIA is not an enemy that you want to have. I can only imagine the kind of testimony they could give about the damage the leak did to national security. They can heap it on as thick or thin as they like.

On the other hand, if the leaker is employed in the White House, they may have first-hand testimony on what the political motives were. When they said the leak was done “purely and simply for revenge”, were they expressing an opinion, or characterizing a conversation they participated in?

Looking at the original article, it feels like the leaker was in the White House:

The official would not name the leakers for the record and would not name the journalists. The official said there was no indication that Bush knew about the calls.

It is rare for one Bush administration official to turn on another. Asked about the motive for describing the leaks, the senior official said the leaks were “wrong and a huge miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson’s credibility.”

Meanwhile:

In questioning reporters for The Washington Post, NBC and Time, prosecutors have shown a particular interest in the events of July 12, reporters and their attorneys have said. Word that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA had by then circulated to some media organizations, though the origin of the information is not publicly known.

While Novak’s column did not run until Monday, July 14, it could have been seen by people in the White House or the media as early as Friday, July 11, when the Creators Syndicate distributed it over the Associated Press wire.

Rove talked to Cooper on the morning of the 11th. So, we now know that origin of the information that started circulating more widely on the 12th.

What we don’t know is whether Rove’s conversation with Cooper took place before or after Novak’s column appeared on the AP wire.

It might be possible for Rove to assert that he only learned of Wilson’s wife’s role at the CIA after he read Novak’s column.

But I don’t think it will fly, because there was no reason to tell Cooper that information on deep background, if Rove knew it was available on the wire.

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