From former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s new book:
“The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
“There was one problem. It was not true.
“I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the president himself.”
That’s refreshing candor. Now, we know that the president has pretty much unlimited constitutional power to issue pardons, but he doesn’t have the right to obstruct justice. I know that Patrick Fitzgerald interviewed the president, the vice-president, and the president’s chief of staff, Andrew Card. I am quite sure that none of them admitted that they told Scott McClellan to lie about the role of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in the outing of Valerie Wilson. You’re not allowed to lie to a federal prosecutor or to a grand jury. You are not allowed to suborn perjury. You are not entitled to offer a pardon in exchange for obstruction of an investigation.
I think we need a new grand jury.
