WASHINGTON — In the hours before the Justice Department informed the White House in late September 2003 that it would investigate the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, gave reporters what turned out to be a rare glimpse into President Bush's knowledge of the case.
Bush, he said, "knows" that Karl Rove, his senior adviser, had not been the source of the leak. Pressed on how Bush was certain, McClellan said he was "not going to get into conversations that the president has with advisers" but made no effort to erase the impression that Rove had assured Bush that he had not been involved.
Since then, administration officials and Bush himself have carefully avoided disclosing anything about any involvement the president may have had in the events surrounding the disclosure of the officer's identity or anything about what his aides may have told them about their roles. Citing the continuing investigation and now the pending trial of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, they have declined to comment on almost any aspect of the case.
The issue now for the White House is how long it can go on deflecting the inquiries and trying to keep the focus away from Bush.
While there has been no suggestion that Bush did anything wrong, the portrait of the White House that was painted by the special counsel last week in the indictment of Libby was one in which a variety of senior officials, including Cheney, played some role in events that preceded the disclosure of the officer's identity.
The fact that so many of Bush's aides seem to have been involved in dealing with the issue that eventually led to the leak — how to rebut or discredit Joe Wilson, a former diplomat who had challenged the administration's handling of prewar intelligence — leaves open the question of what the president knew.
People involved in the case have confirmed that Rove told Bush and other White House colleagues in September 2003 that he had no involvement, but it is not known what, if anything, Rove has told Bush since testifying to the grand jury last year and this year that he had conversations with two reporters that touched on the identity of the officer, Valerie Wilson. What, if anything, Cheney and Libby may have told Bush remains a mystery.