DEBATING A LEAK: THE INVESTIGATION; Democrats Want Ashcroft Out of Inquiry
By CARL HULSE AND RICHARD W. STEVENSON; ERIC LICHTBLAU AND GLEN JUSTICE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT. (NYT)
1126 wordsPublished: October 3, 2003
Correction Appended
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - Democrats insisted on Thursday that Attorney General John Ashcroft remove himself from the investigation into the disclosure of an undercover C.I.A. officer's identity, defying Republican efforts to contain the furor over the affair.
The clamor will probably be fed by financial data underscoring the close political ties between Mr. Ashcroft and Karl Rove, the presidential adviser whose role in the leak has come into question. Campaign finance data show that Mr. Rove's former company received more than $300,000 from Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign in Missouri for direct-mail work and other services, in addition to his role in two earlier Ashcroft campaigns.
''Does anyone really believe that this attorney general can with a straight face say they're going to investigate these people when they work for them, they have close ties?'' Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, asked on the Senate floor on Thursday.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said on Thursday that Mr. Ashcroft should recuse himself immediately. Mr. Schumer said three or four Republicans had come to him and said, ''You guys are right on this issue.''
Justice Department officials said they were leaving open all options.
Republicans in Congress described the controversy as a ''tempest in a teapot'' and said Joseph C. Wilson IV, the former ambassador married to the officer whose identity was disclosed to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak, was becoming viewed as a partisan figure.
One senior Republican aide said that if the uproar did not abate, some Republicans were considering proposing that the White House allow the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, to appoint a prosecutor.
''The problem with Mr. Ashcroft is that he is not seen as an independent figure,'' the aide said.
But publicly, no Republicans have broken ranks with the White House and the Justice Department by calling for Mr. Ashcroft to recuse himself or appoint an outside counsel.
So much is riding on Republican unity that CNN caused a brief flurry on Thursday by reporting that Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, had called on Mr. Ashcroft to recuse himself.
But the senator quickly put out a press release saying he had been misquoted and said later in an interview that the decision was best left to the attorney general. He said he was confident that career Justice Department lawyers could ably oversee the investigation.
The two Republican chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees said their panels were not pursuing the matter. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas and Representative Porter J. Goss of Florida said that in their own view, based on limited knowledge, the disclosure was inadvertent. But both men said that if it turned out it was calculated they would treat it very seriously.
''I would say there is much larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about national security,'' said Mr. Goss, a former C.I.A. agent. ''But I would never take lightly a serious allegation backed up by evidence.''
He added, referring to the independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's inquiry into former President Clinton, ''If somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I will have an investigation.''
Three female Democratic senators raised furious objections to the disclosure of the name, saying that whoever dragged Mr. Wilson's wife into a political dispute over his work on a weapons of mass destruction went far beyond accepted limits of partisan infighting.
''This betrayal by someone or some people in the administration has reached a new low by attacking the family of one of its own,'' said Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana. ''There's an unwritten rule in politics that no matter how rough the politics gets, families are off limits, particularly spouses and children.''
With interest in investigation intense, the F.B.I. said today that it was developing a protocol to help ensure investigators access to witnesses and documents.
''There's a protocol we're developing on the way investigators will handle the interviews and the records and how we obtain those,'' said Susan Whitson, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the inquiry. ''Our whole purpose here is get to the bottom of an unauthorized disclosure.''
Ms. Whitson said the interviews could begin within days. ''We're going to be very aggressive in this investigation, and any tool or legal methods that we use in criminal cases will be used here,'' she said.
Ms. Whitson declined to discuss details, but current and former law enforcement officials said from past experience that they expected that a gatekeeper at the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency -- probably in the counsel's offices -- would act as a clearinghouse for interview and document requests.
In the White House, it was Alberto Gonzales, counsel to the president, who issued a staff-wide directive this week that any records relevant to the investigation not be destroyed.
The C.I.A. received similar instructions, and a government official disclosed today that the State Department and the Defense Department did as well. But the official stressed that the move was simply standard procedure based on who had access to classified C.I.A. information.
Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush's spokesman, said he was not aware of anyone at the White House having been contacted by the F.B.I. in the case.
White House officials have pledged their cooperation, but the F.B.I. could seek grand jury subpoenas if needed.
Under Justice Department policy on investigations involving reporters, a subpoena for something like a journalist's telephone records would have to be approved by Mr. Ashcroft.
For now at least, the investigation will be led by investigators in the F.B.I.'s inspections division, officials said. It will be overseen by lawyers in the Justice Department's counter-espionage section within the criminal division.
Mr. McClellan said any decision about Mr. Ashcroft recusing himself rested with the Justice Department. But he signaled again that Mr. Bush is not pressing for any changes in the investigation.
''The Department of Justice has publicly stated that all legal options are on the table,'' Mr. McClellan said. ''That's where it stands. But I would remind you that career Justice Department officials are the ones who are leading this investigation. These are individuals with vast experience and are in the best position to get to the bottom of this.''
Mr. Bush ''has made it very clear that he wants to get to the bottom of this,'' he added. ''Unfortunately, there are some that are looking through the lens of political opportunism. There are some that are seeking partisan political advantage. I don't need to go into names. We all know who they are.''
Correction: October 4, 2003, Saturday Because of an editing error, an article yesterday about Democratic demands that Attorney General John Ashcroft remove himself from the investigation into the disclosure of a C.I.A. officer's identity misattributed the statement that interviews in the case could begin within days. It was made by government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity -- not by Susan Whitson, an F.B.I. spokeswoman; she refused to discuss the timeline of the case under any circumstances.
