SALON

Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005 5:31 PM UTC

What did Bob Woodward know and when did he know it?

Famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward testifies in the CIA leak case.

By

Topics: War Room,

According to a report out today in the Washington Post, Bob Woodward, the famous reporter who exposed the Watergate scandal and who also serves as the Post’s current assistant managing editor, testified under oath on Monday that a “senior administration official” had told him of CIA operative Valerie Plame almost a month before she was outed in a column by pundit Robert Novak.

The unnamed official apparently had alerted special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald on Nov. 3 — a week after I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was indicted in the CIA leak investigation — of the mid-June 2003 conversation with Woodward in which the two discussed Valerie Plame and her position at the CIA.

In his statement, Woodward says that he testified about conversations with “three current or former Bush administration officials” he had been interviewing for an upcoming book he’s working on. Although Woodward is keeping mum on the details of his conversation with the unnamed official who had notified Fitzgerald about the conversation, Woodward did say that he met with Libby at the end of June where they discussed Iraq policy. In his statement, Woodward said that he talked to Libby on June 23, 2003, with notes about Wilson’s wife, but can’t recall if the subject was ever discussed, and that it was possible that he told Libby that “Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA” — but had no recollection of doing so. So does this clear up or muddle even more so Libby’s involvement in the leak case?

The Post notes that Woodward’s testimony is significant because the unnamed official would be the first person to have discussed Plame — not Libby. And it would make Woodward the “first reporter to have learned about Plame from a government source.”

So many questions. For starters, who are the three officials Woodward talked to on background for his book, and who is the mysterious figure who suddenly, for reasons we can only speculate, decided to notify Fitzgerald about this only recently? Karl Rove’s spokesman says that Turd Blossom was definitely not the source. Is there still some elusive figure in all this that we don’t know about? Is it the same person who was the second yet-to-be named source for that Novak column back in the middle of July 2003? What more does Woodward, a critic of the investigation, know? And how much, if anything, does this have to do with Libby’s defense strategy wherein his lawyers apparently are planning to try to compel as many journalists as they can to testify about any notes or records they might have relating to his case.

William Jeffress Jr., one of Libby’s lawyers, seized on Woodward’s testimony, citing it as evidence that the focus on Libby may not be as accurate as once thought, and that there may be other things that Fitzgerald doesn’t know about. “Why did Mr. Fitzgerald indict Mr. Libby before fully investigating what other reporters knew about Wilson’s wife?” Good question. Anyone think we’ll get the answer?

J.J. Helland is Salon's editorial fellow in New York. More J.J. Helland.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 9 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

War Room is our political news and commentary blog, with coverage and commentary throughout the day.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations