WASHINGTON – President Bush was interviewed for more than an hour Thursday by a special prosecutor investigating whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of a covert CIA officer last summer.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and several assistants questioned the president for about 70 minutes in the Oval Office on Thursday morning. A White House spokesman said the president, who was accompanied by a private attorney, was not placed under oath during the session.
Fitzgerald’s session with Bush comes amid a flurry of recent interviews and subpoenas from investigators who have operated in almost complete secrecy for six months, giving little outward indication of where the investigation is headed. White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales testified on June 18 before a grand jury taking testimony in the case and it was revealed in early June that Vice President Dick Cheney had been interviewed by prosecutors.
“The leaking of classified information is a very serious matter,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, adding that Bush was “pleased to do his part” to aid the investigation.
“No one wants to get to the bottom of this matter more than the President of the United States, and he has said on more than one occasion that if anyone – inside or outside the government – has information that can help the investigators get to the bottom of this, they should provide that information to the officials in charge.”
Fitzgerald is investigating whether Bush administration officials leaked the name of CIA covert officer Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July 2003. Plame is married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a public critic of the Bush administration’s claims about Iraq’s efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The disclosure of a covert CIA officer’s name could be a felony punishable by up to 10 years in jail if it was done intentionally by an official who knew the government was trying to maintain her cover.
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