More on Special Prosecutor's Probe on Memo, Rove, and now Fleischer

I found this off of Bloomberg News. It is a continuation of the Plamegate story of what did Karl Rove know and when did he know it? The story also centers on the July 7 2003 memo that Secretary of State Colin Powell took with him to President Bush's trip to Africa. But there's an interesting little tibit of information in the story.

The memo, prepared by the State Department on July 7, 2003, informed top administration officials that the wife of ex-diplomat and Bush critic Joseph Wilson was a CIA agent. Seven days later, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was publicly identified as a CIA operative by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

On the same day the memo was prepared, White House phone logs show Novak placed a call to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, according to lawyers familiar with the case and a witness who has testified before the grand jury. Those people say it is not clear whether Fleischer returned the call, and Fleischer has refused to comment.

The Novak call may loom large in the investigation because Fleischer was among a group of administration officials who left Washington later that day on a presidential trip to Africa. On the flight to Africa, Fleischer was seen perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife, according to a former administration official who was also on the trip.

In addition, on July 8, 2003, the day after the memo was sent, Novak discussed Wilson and his wife with Rove, who had remained in Washington, according to the New York Times.

So Ari Fleischer read the memo. This is especially interesting because in the New York Times article Fleischer tell the grand jury that he had never seen the article. According to the Times:

Among those asked if he had seen the memo was Ari Fleischer, then the White House press secretary, who was on Air Force One with Mr. Bush and Mr. Powell during the Africa trip. Mr. Fleischer told the grand jury that he never saw the document, a person familiar with the testimony said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the prosecutor's admonitions about not disclosing what is said to the grand jury.

So if Fleischer had seen this memo on Air Force One, then who did he talk to about it? Did he talk to Rove about the memo? The Bloomberg article does provide an interesting insight into the Bush inner circle:

Fleischer, who saw the July 7 memo, wasn't part of Bush's inner circle during his tenure as press secretary, while Rove was at the heart of it. Given those facts, it seems highly doubtful that Fleischer would have acted on the information in the memo without the knowledge or approval of Rove and other top-level White House officials.

The New York Times article says that "Rove has also told the grand jury that he never saw the memorandum, a person briefed on the case said." While Bloomberg reports that Fleischer read the memo. Now if Fleischer is not a part of Bush's inner circle, he certainly would not have done anything with the memo. But he may have recognized the significance of its contents, considering the criticisms the White House was then experiencing after the Wilson Op-Ed in the NY Times. Fleischer could have talked to Rove about the memo. And if Rove did learn of Plame through Fleischer, he certainly could have set the White House PR spin machine to leak the contents of the memo in retribution to Wilson's criticisms.

Somewhere in all these lies and contradictions, there is a White House coverup regarding Plamegate. Rove, Lewis Libby, and possibly Fleischer are involved in the scandal. And Special Prosecutor Fitzpatrick knows it. In the Bloomberg news story:

This points toward a potential problem for Rove in the direction of Fitzgerald's investigation. It now has expanded beyond its original mission -- to determine if the 1982 law was violated -- to encompass whether any White House officials, including Rove and Fleischer, have testified falsely about the case or obstructed justice by trying to cover up their involvement in the leak, according to people familiar with the case who cite a pattern of questioning by Fitzgerald.

In addition, there is strong reason to believe that Fitzgerald is hunting big game, according to several legal experts. They say that is demonstrated by the fact that he has done something that no federal prosecutor has done in 30 years: send a reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, to jail for refusing to divulge with whom she spoke about the Wilson-Plame case.

``You wouldn't expect him to go to these lengths unless he thought he had something serious to look at,'' said Randall Eliason, the former chief of the public corruption section at the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington. ``You don't compel reporters to testify or jail reporters unless you have a pretty good reason.''

More to come.