The Washington Monthly

July 11, 2005

WHAT ROVE KNEW AND WHEN HE KNEW IT....Over at Tapped, Matt Yglesias ponders Karl Rove's legal responsibility for having outed a CIA agent:

The much more likely legal out is that Rove may not have known that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA in a covert capacity. Maybe somebody else in the office who read the relevant file mentioned to Rove that she worked at the CIA, didn't mention that she was covert, and Rove passed on what he knew to reporters.

This is pretty much the standard defense for Rove's actions, and legally it might work. Who knows? But really, don't you think Rove's first instinct upon hearing that Joe Wilson's wife "works for the CIA" would be to wonder what she does and whether it's OK to pass this along to other people? After all, the guy's a senior White House aide, not a ten year old. Perhaps the president should ask him to be a wee bit more careful in the future?

—Kevin Drum 1:13 PM Permalink | Trackbacks

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