Woodward Role Alters CIA Leak Timeline, May Not Undermine Case

By Richard Keil and Kristin Jensen

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward's disclosure that he learned the identity of an undercover CIA agent more than two years ago adds an unexpected new element to the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide without greatly altering the substance of the case.

Woodward is a best-selling author whose reporting on the Watergate scandal helped drive President Richard Nixon from office in 1974. He apologized to executive editor Leonard Downie for not informing him and other Post editors about what he learned from a Bush administration official in June 2003: that Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in his Oct. 28 indictment of I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, said the vice president's chief of staff lied when he testified that he learned of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity from NBC reporter Tim Russert.

``The impact on the case is probably minimal,'' former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said. ``The question before the jury will be whether Libby lied, and whether or not Bob Woodward had a conversation about Plame with another source doesn't have a great impact on the determination the jurors will be making.''

Fitzgerald constructed a chronology that placed Libby, 55, at the center of an effort to discredit Wilson by revealing that his wife was a CIA agent, and Woodward's conversations with Libby predate the examples Fitzgerald relied upon.

While Woodward's revelation alters Fitzgerald's timeline, Libby still has significant legal hurdles to overcome in his effort to avoid conviction, said Holder, now a lawyer at Covington & Burling in Washington.

Lost Credibility

The disclosure that the nation's most famous reporter has become enmeshed in the CIA leak affair may have more impact on U.S. journalism, further eroding confidence in a profession that has already suffered damage to its credibility in the case.

``I'm afraid that to most news consumers, this just adds to the conviction, `Well, you can't believe what you read; you can't believe what you hear,''' said Michael Parks, director of the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Fitzgerald's indictment alleges that Libby lied about discussing Wilson's wife with Russert and made false statements about his discussions with reporters Matthew Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of the New York Times.

Woodward, writing in the Post yesterday, declined to reveal which administration official first told him of Plame's identity, citing a confidentiality agreement with the official. The official stepped forward to speak with Fitzgerald on Nov. 3, and Woodward answered questions from the prosecutor under oath for more than two hours on Nov. 14, the Post said.

Federal Crime

It is a federal crime for a government official to knowingly and willfully reveal the identity of a covert agent. Libby, indicted on charges of perjury, obstructing justice and making false statements, resigned after his indictment and has pleaded not guilty.

Woodward said he had ``Joe Wilson's wife'' on notes he referred to during a June 23, 2003, telephone interview with Libby. ``I testified that I have no recollection that Wilson or his wife was discussed, and I have no notes of the conversation,'' Woodward said.

Woodward met with Libby on June 27 for a book he was writing on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war and took with him the notes that included the notation ``Joe Wilson's wife,'' the reporter said in the Post. ``I have four pages of typed notes from this interview, and I testified that there is no reference in them to Wilson or his wife.''

`Plus for the Defense'

Former federal prosecutor Larry Barcella said the development may help Libby by causing jurors to question Fitzgerald's reasoning. ``To the extent a defense attorney is able to deflect an investigation away from the defendant and onto the prosecutor's conduct of the case, that's always a plus for the defense,'' said Barcella, now an attorney with the Washington firm of Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker.

Libby's lawyer, Theodore Wells, called Woodward's revelation ``a bombshell'' in an e-mailed statement, saying it undermined Fitzgerald's contention that Libby was the first government official to tell a reporter about Wilson's wife.

Plame Not Mentioned

Wells also said Woodward's disclosure that he spoke twice to Libby without Plame's name coming up ``undermines Mr. Fitzgerald's key theme that Mr. Libby was involved in a scheme to discredit Wilson by telling reporters about Wilson's wife's employment at the CIA.''

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Fitzgerald, declined to comment.

Woodward's revelation comes eight days after Miller quit the New York Times following a dispute with executive editor Bill Keller over how she handled her discussions with Libby. Keller told staffers in e-mails that he and other editors should have worked to learn more about Miller's contacts with administration officials and Iraqi exiles who said former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was trying to reconstitute his nuclear program.

In a July 16, 2004, editorial, the New York Times faulted itself for ``groupthink'' and failing to be more skeptical about the Bush administration's pre-war claims.

Downie said last night Woodward should have told him at some point after Plame's name became the center of controversy that he had had a conversation with an administration official about her.

``I apologized because I should have told him about this much sooner,'' Woodward said in an article posted on the newspaper's Web site. ``I explained in detail how I was trying to protect my sources. That's job No. 1 in a case like this.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Keil in Washington at dkeil@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 17, 2005 00:11 EST

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