Leaks Probe: FBI Focusing on Month Before the Leak
According to some of those interviewed by the FBI in connection with the leaks probe of the disclosure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the focus is now June, the month before Robert Novak wrote his now infamous column:
In their interviews, FBI agents are asking questions about events going back to at least early June, the sources said. That indicates investigators are examining not just who passed the information to Novak and other reporters but also how Plame's name may have first become linked with Wilson and his mission, who did it and how the information made its way around the government.
...Investigators are trying to establish the chain of events leading to the leak because, for a successful prosecution under the law prohibiting unauthorized disclosure of a covert U.S. officer's name, the disclosure must have been intentional, the accused must have known the person was a covert officer and the identity must not have been disclosed earlier.
The first column to mention Joseph Wilson's mission to Niger (without mentioning him by name) was the May 6 Nicholas Kristof column in the New York Times.
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