CNN’s White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux apparently regurgitates White House/GOP denials. Steve Clemons:
Bolton and the Valerie Plame Scandal Grand Jury
I spent much of Friday speaking with people at MSNBC, including officials in the network’s communication and legal department, as well as with Hardball correspondent David Schuster.
All of the people to whom I spoke are standing by the report by David Schuster Thursday evening that John Bolton is among those who have provided testimony to the grand jury in the Valerie Plame investigation.
By Friday evening, CNN’s Inside Politics had an interesting exchange between James Carville, Pat Buchanan, and CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Whereas Carville echoed what had appeared on my blog and others that Bolton had met with the grand jury, Malveaux interrupted him and stated that she had heard from White House sources that this information is erroneous.
Despite TWN‘s efforts Friday evening, we were unable to reach Ms. Malveaux … we did query MSNBC again, after Malveaux’s comments, and the network still says that its information on Bolton meeting the grand jury is firm.
Here is the transcript of the Carville-Malveaux exchange: …
More below from Steve Clemons’ post Sunday night at The Washington Note:
CARVILLE: I don’t know. But from what I know is, is that federal prosecutors in federal court take a pretty dim view about not telling the truth. I mean a real, real dim view.
And again — you have, Mr. Libby — according to Bloomberg, you have Mr. Libby saying I heard it from Mr. Russert, you have Mr. Russert saying he heard no such thing from me. You have Mr. Rove saying Mr. Novak, he first heard it from Mr. Novak. You have Mr. Novak saying essentially that Mr. Rove confirmed my story for me. Furthermore, you have Mr. Rove saying I had a conversation with Mr. Matt Cooper of “Time” magazine about welfare reform, then Mr. Cooper said we had no such conversation about welfare reform, we were talking about Valerie Plame. So it is — my sense is that it matters greatly. And now the new wrinkle is reported on blogs, I understand, is that John Bolton has been called in to discuss the matter with them.
MALVEAUX: We’ve spoken to a senior administration official who say that that’s actually not true, that that did not occur — that that was actually an erroneous report.
BUCHANAN: That is exactly the point here. Grand jury testimony is secret. And so what we’re hearing is strictly rumors. A rumor a day, people are moving all kinds of stories, we don’t know how many times they’ve been transferred to other people before we actually hear the rumor. And so we do not know anything at this time. I agree with James on one count. I mean, if indeed they perjured themselves, if they lied before the grand jury, then we have a crime. But we will know that until they’re indicted.
CARVILLE: Hold on. We do know, we can know if someone goes in, if I go in and I tell a grand jury something, I can come out and say this is what I told the grand jury. We know that they said, what Mr. Russert and Mr. Novak said, they can say what they said.
to the country and the world when the person that President Bush nominated to represent the United States at the UN is thrown in Jail. The Democrats Blocked his nomination and the lying, hypocritical, Pathetic Republicans wanted him to pass through with flying colors. This will put the Repugs out of power of generations to come….Bigger than watergate.
goddammit I hope so. I just mentioned on another post that I’m becoming almost violent towards the dam press…or maybe my biorhythms are off today.
Thanks Susan for bringing this beauty back to the eye of the beholder. I sure hope that Bolton get what is due him. I knew he had something all along to do with this. He is a sneaky son of a gun and needs to be taken car of right now.
This has got to be the reason the Bush administration just wouldn’t release the records of Bolton’s intelligence intercepts on certain people during his confirmation hearings for U.N. Ambassador. I think it would be found to include Joe and or, Valerie Wilson, and this is also, I think, why Judith Miller is so insistant on keeping her source/s secret. There’s a good chance that it’s Bolton.
When our nation’s integrity and survival is gasping for air, it’s so reassuring to know that there are officials like Fitzgerald who remain true to the law, and who seek the truth no matter what the political consequences are. Keep tugging on that thread Mr. Fitzgerald, the sweater is beginning to unravel, bigtime.
I agree with your point that the WH would not release those intercepts of Bolton’s for the same reason. Bolton was digging for Plame identity and he lied to the Senate about being called to the grand jury. Has anyone in this administration EVER told the truth. This is why I agreed yesterday with Booman’s perspective that this has to be our #1 priority…to see that it remains front and center until these lying bastards are frog marched out of the WH in handcuffs. Roberts too is vitally important but we CAN do more than one issue at a time. I kmow we can.
Suzanne Malveaux, Dana Bash, and especially John King always spew the White House line. Always. Why do you think CNN gets so many high level White House interviews? CNN, in being the mouth of White House spin and lies has tied it’s own credibility to that of the administration. Then they wonder why they’re criticized so much.
Of course the administration will deny Bolton’s role. The more I read about all of this, the more I think that this is the one that may bring down the whole Bush dynasty. In Frank Rich’s 8 days in July he says the Bush administration has been “drunk with hubris” in their actions and coverups. I know this article has been linked here before, but if you haven’t read it, it’s most definitely worth your time.
Did Bolton testify? If he did, he lied on his nomination questionaire to Congress. here’s a piece that ties it all together quite nicely. The defecation has hit the oscillating circulator for sure.