There was a qualifier: Bob Woodward’s revelation yesterday that an unnamed White House official revealed the identity of the CIA secret agent Valerie Plame to him even earlier than Scooter Libby outed her to other reporters has Libby’s supporters claiming some sort of victory in the case.
In particular, Libby’s lawyer said yesterday that Woodward’s revelation indicates that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s case against his client is flawed.
The problem is, nobody bothered to read the transcript of what Fitzgerald said – nobody, except Keith Olbermman:
Wells issued a statement at midday, the key passage of which concludes that Woodward’s “disclosure shows that Mr. Fitzgerald’s statement at his press conference of October 28, 2005 that Mr. Libby was the first government official to tell a reporter about Mr. Wilson’s wife was totally inaccurate.”
But Fitzgerald never said that.
The transcript of Fitzgerald’s news conference is not disputed — nobody from his office has called up trying to get it altered after the fact. On October 28, Fitzgerald actually said: “Mr. Libby was the first government official known to have told a reporter” about Ambassador Joe Wilson’s wife.
“The first government official known to have told…” is a huge difference from “The first government official to tell…”
