Now for a bit more on the Plame matter.
We’ve known for some time that the CIA nudged the Department of Justice to look into the Plame matter for some time before an investigation was finally launched in late September of last year.
Now we have a few more details.
On September 30th of last year Rep. John Conyers, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the CIA requesting a description of what contacts the Agency had had with Justice about the Plame matter prior to the commencement of the investigation.
Then last Friday, January 30th, the CIA responded in a letter we’ve just added to the TPM Document Collection.
According to the letter the CIA first contacted Justice by phone on July 24th, 2003. They followed up on July 30th, 2003 with a letter advising them of a possible violation of criminal law and informing them that they had opened their own investigation.
The folks at the CIA seem not to have gotten an altogether satisfactory response to the July 30th letter because they again sent the letter, by fax, on September 5th, 2003.
Then on September 16, 2003 they contacted Justice yet again to inform them that they (i.e., CIA) had completed their investigation. They provided a memo summarizing their findings and requested that the FBI begin a criminal investigation of the matter.
Finally on September 29th, Justice notified the CIA that they had in fact begun an investigation.
Why did it take so long? Why did the CIA have to press so hard?
See the letter for yourself.
Much more on this to come.
