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http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000991278Monday's WH Briefing: McClellan Sidesteps the '12-Hour Gap'
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK Questions from reporters for Press Secretary Scott McClellan at today's White House press briefing ranged widely, from the Roberts nomination to the Supreme Court to continuing disputes with North Korea. Still, reporters kept returning to the Plame/CIA leak case, with several questions centering on an emerging angle now known as the “12-hour gap.”
This is the length of time it took for then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales in 2003 to notify White House staffers not to “lose” any evidence relevant to the Plame probe after being notified by the Justice Department that a full investigation was about to begin. Gonzales only told one person--Chief of Staff Andew Card--right away. He revealed this, unexpectedly, on CBS's “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Here are the related exchange from today's official transcript:
Q On the leak investigation, does President Bush feel that it was appropriate for there to be an 11 or 12-hour time gap from the time that Chief of Staff Andy Card was notified that an investigation was underway to the time that staff here at the White House, including him --
MR. McCLELLAN: I think the President has said that -- and the President directed the White House at the beginning of the investigation to cooperate fully with those overseeing the investigation. And that is exactly what we have done, and that's what we did in that context, as well. If you will recall, back on October 1st of 2003, these questions came up and I addressed it at that time. So you might want to go back and look at that discussion during that briefing.
Q But in the spirit of cooperation, and you had indicted on October 1, 2003, that the reason that the Justice Department was asked, is it okay to wait until the morning, and the answer was that it was okay--but in the spirit of cooperation, why did the notification not go out until 11 or 12 hours later?
MR. McCLELLAN: I talked about that in that briefing, and addressed all those questions at that time. And the President has made it clear that we should cooperate fully with the investigation. That's what we have done, that's what we continue to do.
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Q Yes, Scott, can you assure us that Andrew Card did not speak to -- or did not tell the President or Karl Rove or Scooter Libby or anybody else about the Justice Department investigation?
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, again, those questions came up back in October of 2003 and I addressed them at the time.
Q I know that none of you are speaking about this because it's an ongoing investigation. Can you explain why Alberto Gonzales would go on TV yesterday and do that, and talk about it?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, what he said was already said from this podium back in October of 2003, and I don't think he got into commenting in any substantive way on the discussion. But the President has said that we will be glad to talk about this once the investigation has come to a conclusion, but not until then. And there have certainly been preferences expressed to the White House that we not get into discussing it while it is ongoing.
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