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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday said it had ruled out three senior aides as possible sources for a leak disclosing the name of a CIA operative and President Bush said the case may never be resolved.
"I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is," Bush told reporters after he met with his Cabinet. "I'd like to. I want to know the truth."
Bush spoke ahead of a 5 p.m. White House deadline on Tuesday for officials to turn over information wanted by Justice Department investigators probing the leak, which has become the latest controversy surrounding Bush's decision to go to war against Iraq.
Spokesman Scott McClellan said senior Bush political aide Karl Rove, vice presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby and National Security Council senior director Elliott Abrams had each denied leaking the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Plame's husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, had publicly opposed Bush on a key element of his case for war and has accused the administration of disclosing Plame's name in retaliation.
McClellan said he talked to each of the three officials in response to news reports they may have been involved in the leak. "They were not involved in leaking classified information, nor did they condone it," McClellan said.
Abrams pleaded guilty in 1991 of lying to Congress in the Iran-Contra controversy, and was pardoned by former President George Bush.
Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan urged Rove to resign. In a letter to the Bush aide, Conyers accused him of seeking to give the leak "wider currency" even if he may not have been the source.
Bush said he did not know whether the criminal probe, begun after a CIA request, would find who leaked Plame's name.
"I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators, full disclosure," he said. But he said Washington was "full of people who like to leak information," and the media was practiced at protecting sources.
POLITICAL DAMAGE FOR BUSH?
The issue has threatened further political damage for Bush, whose poll standing has been hurt by continued instability in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion in March.
Wilson has accused the administration of leaking Plame's name after he criticized Bush claims that Iraq had tried to acquire nuclear-weapons material in Africa.
The claims, which had been investigated by Wilson in Niger in a mission for the CIA, were part of Bush's case for war but the White House later said the evidence was unsubstantiated.
Tuesday's deadline was self-imposed by the White House, in response to a Justice Department order.
White House Chief of Staff Andy Card on Tuesday urged "thorough, diligent and timely" compliance in a memo to staffers.
"The sooner we complete the search and delivery of documents, the sooner the Justice Department can complete its inquiry -- and the sooner we can all return our full attention to doing the work of the people," Card said.
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales last week directed staffers to hand over any records relating to Wilson and Plame or Wilson's trip to Niger.
Also sought were records of contacts with columnist Robert Novak, who disclosed Plame's CIA job in July, and Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce of Newsday, who cited intelligence officials as confirming Novak's story.
McClellan said responses would be collected by Gonzales's office before being turned over. The White House was unlikely to give the investigators any material on Tuesday, he said.
He said the Justice Department had set a variety of deadlines over the next two weeks.
