My Hadley Conspiracy Theory

by emptywheel

Summary: In this post, I look back at some evidence that Rove and Hadley (and Libby) collaborated on the Plame leak. Given the evidence, I think Jim VandeHei's revelation that Hadley told Rove of Plame's identity may have been a warning to Hadley that the conspiracy indictment he narrowly avoided on Fitzmas may be a looming possibility again.

Update: VandeHei says he misspoke. It's Libby, not Hadley, from whom Rove learned of Plame's identity. I'll stand by my assertion ... Hadley was intimately involved in the conspiracy to out Valerie Plame.

Once again, I miss out on all the fun because I don't watch teevee. Jane tells us that Jim VandeHei, Luskin's mouthpiece of choice lately, announced on Hardball that Hadley told Rove of Plame's identity. For the record, I think VdH was telegraphing testimony to Hadley (and that perhaps VdH's editors have become hip to the way this cabal telegraphs their testimony through news reports, after they were the only ones who fell for Libby's bait all those months ago). And I wouldn't be surprised if we learned Hadley has another trip to the Grand Jury scheduled. Or an appointment to take time off and spend more time with his lawyers.

I have been predicting that Hadley would get charged with conspiracy in this leak for months. That's because in July of this year, just after Matt Cooper testified (and therefore slightly before Rove offered to testify to the Grand Jury for a fourth time), the NYT revealed the existence of significant coordination between Libby, Rove, and Hadley the week of the leak.

At the same time in July 2003 that a C.I.A. operative's identity was exposed, two key White House officials who talked to journalists about the officer were also working closely together on a related underlying issue: whether President Bush was correct in suggesting earlier that year that Iraq had been trying to acquire nuclear materials from Africa.

The two issues had become inextricably linked because Joseph C. Wilson IV, the husband of the unmasked C.I.A. officer, had questioned Mr. Bush's assertion, prompting a damage-control effort by the White House that included challenging Mr. Wilson's standing and his credentials. A federal grand jury investigation is under way by a special counsel to determine whether someone illegally leaked the officer's identity and possibly into whether perjury or obstruction of justice occurred during the inquiry.

People who have been briefed on the case said the White House officials, Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby, were helping prepare what became the administration's primary response to criticism that a flawed phrase about the nuclear materials in Africa had been in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address six months earlier.

They had exchanged e-mail correspondence and drafts of a proposed statement by George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, to explain how the disputed wording had gotten into the address. Mr. Rove, the president's political strategist, and Mr. Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, coordinated their efforts with Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, who was in turn consulting with Mr. Tenet.

At the same time, they were grappling with the fallout from an Op-Ed article on July 6, 2003, in The New York Times by Mr. Wilson, a former diplomat, in which he criticized the way the administration had used intelligence to support the claim in Mr. Bush's speech.

The work done by Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby on the Tenet statement during this intense period has not been previously disclosed. People who have been briefed on the case discussed this critical time period and the events surrounding it to demonstrate that Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby were not involved in an orchestrated scheme to discredit Mr. Wilson or disclose the undercover status of his wife, Valerie Wilson, but were intent on clarifying the use of intelligence in the president's address. Those people who have been briefed requested anonymity because prosecutors have asked them not to discuss matters under investigation. [my emphasis]

All very innocent, if you read it through Luskin's rose-tinted glasses. But the CIA didn't think so, so within days a Pincus and VandeHei article gave the CIA's take on the drafting of Tenet's speech.

On July 9, Tenet and top aides began to draft a statement over two days that ultimately said it was "a mistake" for the CIA to have permitted the 16 words about uranium to remain in Bush's speech. He said the information "did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential speeches, and the CIA should have ensured that it was removed."

A former senior CIA official said yesterday that Tenet's statement was drafted within the agency and was shown only to Hadley on July 10 to get White House input. Only a few minor changes were accepted before it was released on July 11, this former official said. He took issue with a New York Times report last week that said Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, had a role in Tenet's statement. [my emphasis]

Now, as I understand it, Condi told Tenet he would be writing a mea culpa on July 9, so I assume there'd be record of her phone call from Air Force One--or a satellite phone in Africa--to Tenet to inform him that he'd be writing such a speech. There may well be some date discrepancies in these two competing accounts. Some of the emails may show L-H-R "drafting" a Tenet mea culpa on July 8, before it was decided on July 9 he would write one. And they may show an inordinate preoccupation with Plame--and declassifying Wilson's trip report--compared to what Tenet reported in his statement.

But the leak of the L-H-R cooperation came just a short time after Luskin leaked the Rove-Hadley email about Cooper and tried to spin that as exculpatory. I think the efforts are related (although by no means an attempt to accomplish the same thing). I think that Luskin became aware of this cache of emails (is it possible Fitzgerald found them only after Luskin handed over the Rove-Hadley email? or is it possible Luskin himself only found them when he conducted his own search of the emails?) and tried to spin them to argue that Rove's intentions were good. Rove wasn't involved in an orchestrated scheme to out Plame, you see, he was just interested in clarifying some intelligence.

But I doubt the spin will work in this case.

We know Libby talked to Ari on July 7 about Plame. We know L-H-R were exchanging emails--perhaps as early as July 7--about how to respond to this issue. We know that Rove and Libby spoke on July 11 or 12 about Novak's forthcoming article. We know that, after a strategy session on Air Force Two, Dick and Libby had decided to direct reporters back to the Tenet statement that Rove and Libby claim to have drafted and the Ari briefing amplifying that statement. As I've argued elsewhere, even the spin on the Tenet statement reflects probable illegal leaking.

No matter how you spin it, this is a remarkable amount of work to just clarify some intelligence.

And Stephen Hadley was, at least according to the NYT, actively involved. We probably knew that anyway, since Rove took the time to write Hadley an email before he left for vacation (if in fact he did that). But the NYT indicates ongoing coordination throughout the week.

Now I don't know when Jim VandeHei believes Hadley leaked Plame's identity to Rove. Probably much earlier than this July 7 week. But we know Rove was shown copies of testimony and asked about this coordination with Libby, presumably during his most recent GJ appearance. And we know Hadley was reported to believe he would be indicted on Fitzmas.

I suspect that, when Fitzgerald received Rove's Hail Mary pass on Fitzmas eve, he held off on all the charges associated with the indictments he intended for Karl. In particular, if he were only indicting Libby, he had to back off any conspiracy charges he was considering. But if Rove's Hail Mary has since been intercepted by the prosecutor and run back for a touchdown, Rove may feel the need to warn his buddy Hadley that things are about to get interesting.

Here's my wild-assed speculation for this post: is it possible that Rove's claim that Hadley was his source for Plame's identity was the bit of news Woodward received that caused him to tell Downie that he had received this leak too? If his source was Hadley, it would make a lot of sense. Add that to yesterday's speculation that the Woodward bombshell was somehow orchestrated by Luskin, and it seems to make a lot of sense. Rove admits Hadley was his source. Luskin leaks that to Jim VdH. Woodward learns it in a proposed-co-bylined article. Downie holds that article until after Woodward has come clean that Hadley was his source. And now VdH, burning to blab this after sitting on it for a month, blurts it out on Hardball.

Update: link added and syntax corrected.

Comments

[DemFromCT]

yesterday I was reading that the public editor (ombudsman) was writing about how the regulars at the WaPo view froomkin especially and the washingtonpost.com site.

Political reporters at The Post don't like WPNI columnist Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing," which is highly opinionated and liberal. They're afraid that some readers think that Froomkin is a Post White House reporter.

John Harris, national political editor at the print Post, said, "The title invites confusion. It dilutes our only asset -- our credibility" as objective news reporters. Froomkin writes the kind of column "that we would never allow a White House reporter to write. I wish it could be done with a different title and display."

Harris is right; some readers do think Froomkin is a White House reporter. But Froomkin works only for the Web site and is very popular -- and Brady is not going to fool with that, though he is considering changing the column title and supplementing it with a conservative blogger.

Froomkin said he is "happy to consider other ways to telegraph to people that I'm not a Post White House reporter. I do think that what I'm doing, namely scrutinizing the White House's every move -- with an attitude -- is in the best traditions of American and Washington Post journalism."

well, put that in context with this.

[emptywheel]

I kept thinking of all the WaPo writers who probably aren't bitching--Priest, Pincus, Milbank--either. Just a few shills who want to have their access and not pay for it with readers.

[Rayne]

Little favor, please; who wrote and posted this entry? I can't tell. I see a comment at FireDogLake from someone that corresponds with this post, but I can't be certain it's the same source. Thanks!

[pollyusa]

add this

Rove and Libby, and to a lesser extent then deputy National Security Council (NSC) adviser Stephen J. Hadley (who is currently Bush's NSC adviser), directed these efforts. Both Rove and Libby discussed with Novak, Cooper, and other journalists the fact that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, and that she was responsible for sending him to Niger, in an effort to discredit him.

The manner by which Rove and Libby learned of Plame's employment at the CIA before they shared that information with journalists is central to whether any federal criminal laws regarding classified information were violated. Rove and Libby have reportedly claimed they learned of the information from journalists. Rove in particular told FBI officials that he first learned of Plame's employment with the CIA from a journalist, but drew their suspicions when he claimed that he could not recall the journalist's name. Murray Waas August 13th, 2005

[p.lukasiak]

Hadley was clearly the link between Libby and Rove. Hadley was Cheney's eyes and ears in the NSC.

I think your previous post which connects the Vivak story to the Woodward disclosure makes an excellent point. The "important fact" that Woodward found out about that may have forced his disclosure to Downie may have been the Luskin-Vivak conversation.

Consider this scenario.... Around October 23, Rove tells Woodward that he did not remember the Cooper conversation -- that the only reason he recalled it was because Vivak had mentioned it to Luskin. Woodward, wanting to curry favor with Rove by making him look innocent, wants to report this under his own byline, and goes to Downie with the story. On October 24, as part of Woodward's sale pitch to Downie on the story of "Rove's innocence", Woodward discloses to Downie that he (Woodward) had known about Plame from another source -- not Rove, and much earlier than the Cooper conversation -- and also mentions that he told Pincus at that time.

At THIS POINT, because of the Post's involvement in Pincus's own testimony, and because Woodward's information contradicts what Pincus testified to, the Post is forced to notify Fitzgerald about what Woodward had disclosed about Pincus.... and explain why this information was being made available at this point. (i.e. the Vivak -- Luskin conversation.)

Fitzgerald contacts Luskin, asks if its true about Vivak, and Luskin says "yes." As a result, Fitzgerald's whole case against Rove/Hadley is called into question at a point where there is insufficient time to determine the facts. So Fitzgerald improvises a freestanding Libby indictment, while Luskin spins the story of how he kept Rove from being indicted at the last minute.

[p.lukasiak]

Rove claims that his original source of the info on Plame was journalists...but he can't remember their names.

Try this one....

Woodward's source is Hadley. Rove actually did hear about "Wilson's wife" from a journalist first -- that journalist being Bob Woodward repeating some "gossip" he'd gotten from Hadley. Rove contacts Hadley, and gets ALL the dirt on Plame.

Because disclosing Woodward's involvement in his initial knowledge about "Wilson's wife" would lead directly to Hadley -- and his (Rove's) subsequent detailed knowledge about "Valerie Plame" -- Rove has to conveniently forget precisely which journalist was his (Rove's) original source.

[Melanie]

TNH'ers,

Um, this post has no author. Could you all do a little better job of attribution?

[emptywheel]

Rayne and Melanie

Sorry about that. I was trying so hard to remember a summary I forgot myself. Literally.

[Rayne]

Thanks, EW, wasn't sure, although it certainly "sounded" like you!

[John Casper]

I am reposting this from FDL. The formatting is ok in Preview, we'll see how it is in Post

For what it's worth. From a WaPo chat at 11 ayem:

Lawrence, Kan.: Did Jim VandeHei misspeak on Hardball when he attributed Rove's knowledge of Valerie Plame to Hadley?

Peter Baker: Thanks for the question. Jim informs me he did misspeak. He meant to say chatter between Rove and Libby, not Hadley. That's the trick with television, it's hard to correct. Appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight here.
bush's jaw | 12.13.05 - 8:22 am |

[Mimikatz]

I see that VandeHei is now retracting his "slip" about Hadley. But I don;t think this is such a big deal.

EW, you rightly, in my view, focus on the 16 words in the State of the Union speech about uranium and the events that triggered, both on Wilson's part and then on the Hadley-Rove-Libby conspiracy. It is highly probable, even without VandeHei, that they were all involved roughly as you and the NYT story recount. Tenet may not have known that anyone other than Hadley worked on his speech, but as you say, Hadley was Cheney's man at the NSC and of course Libby was Cheney's Cheney, so Hadley would go to Libby. And Rove, who has to have his finger in every pie, would come in too. And Cheney may have directed people to the Tenet statement because he thought he knew what it would have contained, being the mastermind behind it all. And remember, Hadley took the fall for the 16 words too.

Who actually told Rove isn;t as important as the underlying fact that these folks were so concerned about reporters digging into the 16 words and the Niger claim and, ultmately, the Niger forgeries and the hyping and concotion of intel to sell the war that they had to create a giant distraction through the Wilson smear. I sincerely hope that someone besides Libby and a bunch of self-important reporters goes down for this.

But this is just one more nail in the coffin of the WaPo's steno team. As Murtha said of Bush, why should we believe anything these folks say?

[John Casper]

"But this is just one more nail in the coffin of the WaPo's steno team. As Murtha said of Bush, why should we believe anything these folks say?"

Couldn't agree more Mimikatz and I think this is the real relevance of the Hadley slip, journalistic, not legal. ReddHedd just sliced up the WaPo's clumsy retraction of the Hadley slip at FDL.

[along]

my head is still swimming with connected, and semi-connected, conspiracy dots. but it's the best--perhaps only--presentation of that case I've read.

and raw story is reporting that fitz briefed the new GJ about another WH target:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Fitzgerald_seen_to_press_for_Rove_1213.html

The Chicago prosecutor briefed the second grand jury investigating the outing last week for more than three hours. During that time, he brought them up to speed on the latest developments involving Rove and at least one other White House official, the sources said. The attorneys refused to identify the second person.

[contribaoer]

The only reason he admitted the speech was a mistake was because it was planted there by the CIA and leaked by Plame intentionally to use the war-its inevitable-and get rid o covert CIA WMD policy and training for all OOs which they blamed
Rice and her WMD degree for.

CIA planned all this and Plame was the intentional leaker using her husband and his history to get rid of covert WMD training and policy.

[Sara]

In recent days, I've persuaded myself that trying to sort out the timeline of conversations may not be the most productive way of looking at what's transpiring.

I am intrigued by Libby's Lawyers statements just after indictment indicating that they intended to litigate a first amendment case pre-trial regarding all the conversations WH staff had with reporters, re: Plame, and expected to bring them all in and take their depositions as part of their pre-trial defense strategy.

I assume that Libby has a pretty good list of the reporters contacted by WH staff in their effort to spin and smear Wilson, and at the point of the inductment, Fitzgerald had interviewed many, had testimony from some, and had made limiting deals with a good many of them. The Defense strategy announcement may have changed Fitzgerald's approach -- he has to look at the case he will be trying, and he doesn't need surprises, so in order to take this weapon away from the defense -- he has to force out the reality of the Press Corps involved in this White House effort. The Press need to be his witnesses, not Libby's.

I suspect this is what led to Woodward and Viveke Novak's coming or being pushed forward, uncomfortable for them and their editors and their understandings as it was. I also don't expect the business managers at Time and the WaPo would be all that excited about paying for Supreme Court Appeals supporting their journalists. Thus I suspect what we are seeing is the process of case building on Fitzgerald's part -- getting testimony all under oath, before the GJ if necessary -- all his property and not Libby's.

I make this argument, because I am trying to sort out what we know in terms of what Fitzgerald's trial strategy might be. I suspect what he intendes is two trials -- the first against Libby alone on the quite narrow matters in the first indictment, which is essentially about lying to Federal Officers and the GJ, for purposes of obstructing justice. He can keep that very narrow, and assuming he gets a conviction and holds 30 years over Libby's head -- then he can force Libby to be "his witness" in a second trial of the real conspiracy that would include Rove, Hadley, and perhaps others.

In fact, I think Fitzgerald may be slow rolling a bit right now so as to get the Libby Case scheduled, motions filed, and pointed toward trial. That would keep the two trials seperate (his strategy) and allow the first to feed a key witness into the second. Particularly if he is considering a Cheney indictment -- this is necessary. He has to set the conditions under which Libby would finally testify against the others.

[emptywheel]

Sara

Really smart stuff, all around. Now if I could only figure out how to turn off these italics.

[along]

somehow my italicization of the raw story passage seems to have spilled over into all subsequent text. even names and dates!
YIKES.

I'd like to request an independent investigation.

[p.lukasiak]

I think its done like this

did it work?

[p.lukasiak]

damn, I guess not

oh well...

[p.lukasiak]

fixed it with four "turn off italics" sequences...which was probably overkill :)

[Pollyusa]

I think this will turn off the italics.

EW

Sorry for just throwing the Waas article up. I ruined my keyboard yesterday and only had copy and paste.

As you know, I've long thought Hadley played a role in the effort to out Plame. This article from Waas puts Hadley in play in the "Plot Against Wilson", but unfortunately Waas stops short of linking Hadley to Plame. He only says Hadley was involved to discredit Wilson.

Hadley as usual has done a good job of keeping his head down. The press accounts of Hadley's role are few. I think you linked to everthing I had on Hadley in your post except this Waas article and three articles on Hadley being Woodward's source.

Raw Story posted two articles on Hadley/Woodward. Raw Story has had a few things wrong, but FWIW on Hadley they posted a follow up to the original claim about Woodward to say their sources were standing by their story. They also claim to have sources in two places, "attorneys close to the investigation and intelligence officials", they add that their sources have " direct knowledge of the case" in the follow-up article.

The Times (UK) also claims that Hadley is Woodward's source.

THE mysterious source who gave America’s foremost journalist, Bob Woodward, a tip-off about the CIA agent at the centre of one of Washington’s biggest political storms was Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, according to lawyers close to the investigation.
The Times 11/20/05

That's all I know.

[carot]

Hadley could also be the reason why Woodward gave his story to V Novak. The email at issue is between Hadley and Rove. Hadley must have known Rove talked to Cooper. Fitz likely asked Hadley if he knew of any SAO talking to reporters about Plame or Niger. Obviously Hadley said no or Fitz wouldn't have needed to threaten Cooper. So Hadley must rely on forgetting the email like Rove did. So Hadley benefits from Luskin's story with V novak leading him to look for the email. Also Hadley and Rove likely had to conspire to make search terms that didn't find the email. So if X is or at least conspired with Hadley then it would make sense to give the story to V Novak since she was already helping in regard to the email.

[Sara]

Res, but remember in terms of the first trial, the known case against Lewis Libby, really the only matter that concerns Firzgerald is his ability to cleanly support his position against Libby's claim that a member of the press was his source on the identity of Valerie Wilson -- which is what Libby told Federal Officers and the Grand Jury. Fitzgerald has to prove this was perjury, and Libby knew it, and given chances to change his testimony, he refused. From Fitzgerald's point of view, he is looking at a very narrow criminal issue -- not matters that open this up beyond the limits of the criminal acts themselves. The zeitguiest of the events is not important at trial -- the Jury is asked to determine, within a range of doubt, whether the Perjury is a fact. If beyond reasonable doubt they convict -- then Fitzgerald hauls Libby back to a Grand Jury and uses his arts (not to include turture) to extract from Libby real testimony.

I think what threw Fitzgerald was not Novak, but Woodward who apparently had been told things before Judy Miller was told anything. But not to worry -- Fitzgerald now has testimony from Woodward's source who called him and "remembered" the matter, and then gave Woodward a release to talk about it with Fitzgerald. Then he put Woodward under oath, and took Woodward's Testimony. We may not know who Woodward's source was -- but we know Fitzgerald does.

Most depositions end with "clean-up" questions, and I would imagine Woodward's ended with some asking him if in the relevant period -- say, mid May of 2003 until Bob Novak's column appeared -- did he, Woodward, discuss Wilson, Wilson's Wife and/or her job, Niger, Niger's Uranium (etc., etc.) with any other White House Staff members or others in the Bush Administration. It would be interesting to know how Woodward answered such a question which is designed, by the way, to cut off any value Woodward might have should Libby try to claim Woodward was his source in the press for his statements to Federal Officers and the Grand Jurry. I think this is really the point of what Fitzgerald is doing right not -- tightening up his case for trial, cutting off the various avenues Libby might attempt to use in defense. Woodward's early knowledge was clearly one of these.

Fitzgerald may well have been taking depositions recently from other members of the press. Note that he is more than willing to do the depositions in the privacy of a reporter's own lawyer's suite of offices -- no need to come to the public court house. He has offered the "house call" service to both Novak and Woodward -- maybe he offered it to others? Unless the defense generates other information beyond his work that contradicts his indictment and supports Libby's perjury, he may well be able to move that additional reporters discussions with each other, with various lawyers and all -- is not material to the case and the rules of evidence would exclued it. Giving Libby very narrow parameters in the first trial would be very classy strategy, given that Fitzgerald's interests are to convict Libby, and turn him into a witness against others.

[John Casper]

Sara, thank you for a very very helpful post. I was particularly impressed by this sentence which I had not known was a possibility.
"Unless the defense generates other information beyond his work that contradicts his indictment and supports Libby's perjury, he may well be able to move that additional reporters discussions with each other, with various lawyers and all -- is not material to the case and the rules of evidence would exclued it." John Casper

[Pollyusa]

Carot

The email that Hadley received makes no mention of Plame. It is not known if Hadley turned over the email or told Fitz about the receiving the email.