White House staff check records over CIA row

WHITE HOUSE staff began going back through records and phone logs yesterday in search of any information relevant to the criminal investigation into public disclosure of a CIA agent’s identity.

President George W. Bush’s spokesman, Scott McClellan, said he had no knowledge about anyone going to the Justice Department with information about the case, as Bush had urged. Similarly, he said he did not know of anyone hiring lawyers.

“At this point, all the Department of Justice has asked us to do is preserve any and all information that could be related,” he said.

Mr McClellan indicated the White House would consent, if asked, to lie detector tests for staff. “We will co-operate fully, at the direction of the president. Full co-operation is full co-operation.”

One day after the probe was announced, there was no sign of investigators at the White House, Mr McClellan said.

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

It was the first criminal investigation of the Bush administration and comes at a time of a decline in the president’s his popularity ratings and criticism of the administration’s handling of the aftermath of the war in Iraq.

Mr Bush said he is “absolutely confident” the investigation can be handled within his administration and reiterated that he has asked the White House staff to co-operate. The president also maintained there is no need to name an outside special counsel.

The investigation is aimed at finding who leaked the name of the CIA secret agent Valerie Plame, possibly in an attempt to punish the officer’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.