FBI begins investigation of disclosure by Bush staff

WASHINGTON — The FBI began a full-scale criminal investigation Tuesday into whether White House officials illegally leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer, and President Bush ordered his staff to cooperate with the first major probe of his administration.

Democrats demanded the appointment of a special outside counsel, but Bush resisted. "I’m absolutely confident that the Justice Department can do a good job," he said on a re-election fund-raising stop in Chicago.

"If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the appropriate action," Bush said. "And this investigation is a good thing."

Democratic leaders said Attorney General John Ashcroft was too close to the White House to conduct an impartial investigation. "We don’t have confidence in John Ashcroft … and we know without a doubt that somebody broke the federal law," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said.

With pressure building, the Justice Department alerted the White House late Monday of the decision to move from a preliminary inquiry into a full investigation, a step rarely taken with complaints involving leaks of classified information.

The investigation is aimed at finding out who leaked the name of the CIA operative, possibly in an attempt to punish the officer’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had accused the administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq.

Most White House employees learned the probe was under way when they turned on their computers and found an e-mail timed at 8:46 a.m. that said: PLEASE READ: Important Message From Counsel’s Office. It alerted the staff to keep all documents that could be related to the investigation.

Although Bush said he welcomed the investigation, it was an embarrassing development for a president who promised to bring integrity and leadership to the White House after years of Republican criticism of the Clinton administration.

While the administration appeared cool toward naming a special counsel, Ashcroft has not ruled out that possibility, a senior law enforcement official said.

That decision will depend on a number of factors, such as whether a suspect is identified who presents a potential conflict for the Justice Department. For now, the investigation is being done by FBI agents in the counterintelligence division based at the FBI Washington field office, and overseen by 11 career prosecutors in the counterespionage section of the Justice Department’s criminal division.

In a follow-up staff message late Tuesday, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales ordered the preservation of any documents such as phone logs, memos, notes and calendar entries from Feb. 1, 2002, and later that relate to Wilson, his fact-finding trip to Africa in February 2002 and his wife’s purported relationship with the CIA and any contacts with the anyone in the news media about those subjects.

In particular, Gonzales cited any contacts with columnist Robert Novak and Timothy Phelps, Washington bureau chief for Newsday newspaper, and Knut Royce, a staff writer for the paper.

"You must preserve all documents relating, in any way, directly or indirectly, to these subjects, even if there could be a question whether the document would be a presidential or federal record or even if its destruction might otherwise be permitted," Gonzales said.

Federal law prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of a covert agent’s name, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The CIA officer’s name was published in July by Novak, who said he based his report on two senior administration officials.

Bush spent the day in Chicago and Cincinnati raising money for his re-election campaign.

"Leaks of classified information are a bad thing. … There’s too much leaking in Washington," he said. "I want to know who the leakers are."