The Washington Post reports that “Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed.”
The famed Watergate investigative reporter has become known in his later years for his ability to keep secrets until his book comes out.
Josh Marshall observes:
The details still seem sketchy and I suspect we're going to find out a lot more in the next few days. But it now seems that Woodward -- who has long been publicly critical of the Fitzgerald investigation -- has been part of it from the beginning. Literally, the beginning.
From the Post account it appears that Woodward was told of Valerie Plame's identity before any other journalist by an as-yet-unnamed senior administration official who is not Karl Rove or Scooter Libby.
More problematically for Woodward, he didn't tell his own Post editors about any of this until last month and then only after the unnamed senior administration official came forward to Fitzgerald and told him about it. That apparently led Fitzgerald to subpoena Woodward.
Jane at firedoglake says, "Woodward is his paper's own little Miss Run-Amok:"
Woodward never mentioned this contact -- which was at the center of a criminal investigation and a high-stakes First Amendment legal battle between the prosecutor and two news organizations -- to his supervisors until last month. Downie said in an interview yesterday that Woodward told him about the contact to alert him to a possible story. He declined to say whether he was upset that Woodward withheld the information from him.
Armando at dkos says:
Sorry Bob, your credibility is shot.
Bob Woodward has called Patrick J. Fitzgerald a "junkyard dog prosecutor." Earlier this year, Woodward said that the damage from the CIA leak was "quite minimal," and "When I think all of the facts come out in this case, it's going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great."
Woodward is writing a book on the Bush second term. The reporter has a long history of effectively permitting his sources to write his books.
In other words, Woodward serves as a "stenographer for the rich and powerful." Obviously, there is a serious price to pay for access to the rich and powerful. The price is likely even greater for access to the vindictive Bushies.
See Woodward's statement (pdf).
Bob Woodward Bush Plamegate CIA leak Politics Woodward Fitzgerald Libby Rove Valerie Plame
