Questions Raised about Tim Russert's Story

newsmax.com ^ | Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 10:17 a.m. EST

[InvisibleChurch]

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 10:17 a.m. EST Questions Raised about Tim Russert's Story

NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert told Leakgate probers that he had no idea Joe Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA employee before her name surfaced in Robert Novak's fateful July 14, 2003 column, and that he was stunned upon learning that Lewis "Scooter" Libby claimed he got that information from him.

But an account by senior NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell raises questions about whether Mr. Russert may have known about Plame's employment well before the Novak column.

On Oct. 3, 2003, Mitchell was a guest on CNBC's now-defunct "Capital Report," where she was asked by host Alan Murray:

"Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA?"

Mitchell replied: "It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that."

Mitchell's "widely known" characterization flatly contradicts assertions last Friday by Leakgate Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who repeatedly insisted that Plame's association with the CIA "was not widely known."

But perhaps more importantly, if Plame's work was an open secret in media circles [according to Mitchell], how is it that her boss, Mr. Russert, who - as NBC Washington bureau chief was presumably monitoring developments in "the intelligence community" as they related to the Wilson story - would have been oblivious to this same "widely known" information?

In fact, according to the text of Fitzgerald's indictment, Libby's version of events more closely matches Mitchell's on the subject of who knew about Plame's employment.

Fitzgerald said Libby claimed:

"During a conversation with Tim Russert of NBC News on July 10 or 11, 2003, Russert asked LIBBY if LIBBY was aware that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. LIBBY responded to Russert that he did not know that, and Russert replied that all

the reporters knew it." [Page 11 of Libby's Indictment]

None of this means that Mr. Libby actually told the truth and that Fitzgerald's star witness against him, Tim Russert, perhaps didn't.

But Mr. Russert might want to clear the air and explain how he managed to stay in the dark about key information in a case that was the talk of the town in early July 2003 - while the same information was "widely known," according a senior reporter who worked under him.

[oceanview]

well in Cooper's case, because he was asking Libby about "Wilson's wife". what reason would he have had to even ask that, imagine if Wilson's wife was a bartender, what sense does the question "did his wife have anything to do with the Niger trip?" make if Wilson's wife is known to be a bartender? none. The question only makes sense, has any context at all, if Wilson's wife was known to be who she was, by the person asking the question.

[samadams2000]

R-U-S-S-E-R-T.....is right my friend.

[Grampa Dave]

Timmy and the other liars of the MSM, who testified at this witch hunt for Rove could be in a lot of trouble re perjury in upcoming criminal cases and financial trouble in civil cases.

[samadams2000]

I guess it never came up in dinners with the R-U-S-S-E-R-T-S and the Wilson Plames and the Mathews then right??? What fun those dinners must have been?????

[lugsoul]

How do you know what questions Fitzgerald asked them?

Or can you acknowledge that you don't?

[samadams2000]

They are all linked at the hip...R-U-S-S-E-R-T-S/ Mathews's/ Coopers/ Wilson Plame/...its really the untold disgusting tale.

[PhilipFreneau]

>>>"But perhaps more importantly, if Plame's work was an open secret in media circles [according to Mitchell], how is it that her boss, Mr. Russert, who - as NBC Washington bureau chief was presumably monitoring developments in "the intelligence community" as they related to the Wilson story - would have been oblivious to this same "widely known" information?"<<<

I'll give that one a big WOW!

[nicmarlo]

But Mr. Russert might want to clear the air and explain how he managed to stay in the dark about key information in a case that was the talk of the town in early July 2003 - while the same information was "widely known," according a senior reporter who worked under him.

Very interesting.

[Dave S]

The question only makes sense, has any context at all, if Wilson's wife was known to be who she was, by the person asking the question.

Well duh, Rove admitted that he told Cooper. So of course he knew enough to confirm with Libby. Recall that Rove released Cooper from protecting his identity as source just before Cooper was about to go to jail.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

Tim Russert's wife is a well connected author- Maureen Orth.
Read her bio at http://www.maureenorth.com/ and tell me with a straight face, that Mrs Russert would not have also known that Val P ! (that's what she liked to be called, per 60 Minutes ) worked at the CIA.
BTW- Was I the sole viewer who watched Olbermann interview Wilson last night ?
Olbermann asked Joe W ! " Did Mr Fitzgerald ever contact you ? "
Joe W ! : " I spoke with Mr Fitzgerald early on in his tenure. I went to meet with him at his request.
I laid out the details of my trip to Africa for him..."
Joe W ! " I spoke to him one other time " - the same day as Judy Miller testified, but Joe W ! said that what he spoke to Fitzgerald about-had nothing to do with Miller.
And then Olber called Sean and Rush " reactionary parrots " for daring to question Joe 's veracity and motives.
It appears that Fitz was reading off the script that Joe W ! provided and had tunnel vision.
Must indict Karl Rove. Must indict Karl Rove.
Too bad Fitzgerald didn't have Zell Miller on his staff.

[oceanview]

told Cooper? or said "I heard that too". any reporter asking about "Wilson's wife" knew her status, its the basis for the question.

[Bernard Marx]

Mandy Greunwald (Hillary's confidant) is Time reporter Matt Cooper's wife

And Andrea Mitchell is Greenspan's wife, as has been posted. But to make it more interesting still, Russert's wife is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine -- the very publication that just "happened" to run a photo of Joe Wilson and Plame together in a convertible. The Washington press corps is more incestuous than an Arkansas slumber party.

[kabar]

And Tim Russert's wife is Maureen Orth who has been a special correspondent for Vainty Fair since 1993. Maureen Orth

[kabar]

Orth also did a profile on Marc Rich. I bet she knows Libby.

[kabar]

"Plame also told Wilson that she'd be moving with him into the new house only as his wife. Records show that Wilson and his second wife, Jacqueline, to whom he was married for 12 years, were divorced in 1998. By the mid-90s, Wilson says, that relationship had pretty much disintegrated. "Separate bedrooms-and I was playing a lot of golf," he says."

Source: Vanity Fair article- Jan 17, 2004

[Bernard Marx]

They all know and make deals with each other. I was delighted that Libby served notice today he's going to twist some DC pressitute and CIA tails before this is over. He knows where lots of bodies are buried. It's going to be unimaginably nasty and he's served notice he'll have as long as he needs to build a great case. I just hope he watches his Six.

[ssaftler]

Look for the LSM to start downplaying the Libby situation, paving the way for it to quietly go away before they all get snared up in it.

All the more reason to get the Fox gang all ginned up on it!

[kabar]

The question is why Wilson didn't include his French wife in his Who's Who bio. The answer: His French wife was a US lobbyist for Omar Bongo in Gabon.

She registered as an agent of Gabon on June 17, 1998 (not long after their divorce) and had received $100,000 prior to the registration. Summary of payments by year: 1998 ($280,0000), 1999 ($250,000); 2000 ($75,000 ); 2001 ($39,000); and 2002 ($8,000). She was not listed as an agent in 2003.