White House spokesman confirms testimony before CIA leak grand jury

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/02/09/national1552EST0685.DTL

President Bush's press secretary said Monday he had testified before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA undercover officer's identity.

Scott McClellan told reporters that he appeared before the panel in Washington last week.

"I'm doing my part to cooperate, as the president directed all of us to do," McClellan said aboard Air Force One during Bush's trip to Springfield, Mo.

[Rebellious Republican]

1. Boy, smirk loves that term Doody! N/T

:puke:

[lancdem]

2. Very interesting

It's been reported that indictments may soon be handed down. (BTW, compare this to the Starr investigation, which had illegal grand jury leaks all over the place.)

[lancdem]

3. I wonder what prompted the press to ask him that?

Must be rumors flying around.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

4. i hate to use a term like "IMMINENT," but ...

... the fact that they talked to McClellan last week may be very, very telling.

The world of possible witnesses who might know anything about this is extremely small. Otherwise, much more info about the outing would have leaked even before the grand jury began its work. So if McClellan has already appeared, they must be running out of witnesses.

Was someone speculating about an indictment by the end of this week?

[underpants]

5. 5 maybe 7

Dick
Libbie
Candi
McClellan
Rove
Hadley?
Wolfowitz?

[lancdem]

6. Good point about McClellan

I hadn't heard a timetable, but I imagine it will be quite soon.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Was the leak before or after

McClellan took over for Ari? Just curious.

[oceanpoetry]

8. before, I believe

Didn't Ari leave soon after the leak became public knowledge via Bob Novak?

[AZCat]

9. Fleischer's last Press Briefing...

was on July 14, 2003. The next day Scott McClellan took over.
I will look for the Novak article date.

[AZCat]

10. Oooohhh... Put on your Tin Hat!

The Novak article was on July 14, 2003!
I love coincidences...
So has Ari testified to the grand jury?

[calimary]

11. Seems to me Ari bailed RIGHT before the Plame affair broke out.

I think, in fact, he bailed before Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, set off the firestorm with his NYTimes op/ed piece about the bogus Niger documents. I could be wrong about that. But I do remember that almost everyone here was buzzing about how Ari got outta Dodge just in time, and whether that meant he knew something was up.

[AZCat]

13. The NY Times Article by Wilson...

titled "What I Didn't Find in Africa", was published on July 6, 2003.
It was sometime in May (?) that Fleischer announced he would retire at the end of July.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

20. Ari might have bailed because he didn't want to deal with this one. n/t

[The Sushi Bandit]

12. Screw Scott and go after wonderboy Fleischer

[Lex]

14. I have to admit this

I always hated Ari Fleisher. From the campaign of Shrub's right on through to when he was Press Sec'y. Smug, lying bastard---that's the scream inside my head whenever I saw him.

I usually don't hate them all that viscerally. I want them gone, and will work to get them out. But Fleisher was particularly loathsome to me.

[snippy]

17. Me too. Someone here used to refer to him as Comrade Squealer.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Is Fleischer one of the leakers?

He was the WH Press Secretary?

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

15. if indictments come down

i shudder to think what the media diversion will be.

[Barrett808]

18. I saw Joe Wilson speak Friday night - he said things may happen soon

"Sooner than you might expect," or words to that effect. There were a couple of audience questions about it, and the general mood seemed to be that the case will break open very soon now.

[demgrrrll]

19. Someone over at the atrios comments section has a transcript up

of the gaggle where McClellen answered questions about the
Plame matter. He noted that he had spoken with little
Scooter pie and Rove and that they "had not leaked
classified information". There's more but that is all I can remember right not.

I remembered the part where he told the press that he had spoken with them personally. I wonder what he will say at the hearing.

[lancdem]

21. Josh Marshall and others noted at the time

that McClellan chose his words carefully. He never actually said they weren't guilty in Plamegate.