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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 22, 2004

SCHUMER PRESSES DOJ TO DETAIL HOW WELL WHITE HOUSE IS COOPERATING WITH CIA LEAK PROBE

Senator asks if White House is complying with DOJ requests, including whether White House employees have released reporters from confidentiality agreements

Schumer: The public needs to know if White House is fulfilling its pledge to cooperate

US Senator Charles Schumer today asked Deputy Attorney General James Comey to report to Congress on how well the White House is cooperating with the Justice Department's investigation into who leaked the identity of a covert CIA agent. In January, the Justice Department reportedly asked White House officials to waive the confidentiality of their conversations with journalists regarding the agent's identity. The White House has refused to say whether it is requiring its employees to do so.

"The White House has said over and over again that it wants to find who committed this dastardly deed but has yet to utter a single word about what specific steps it is taking to cooperate with the Justice Department," Schumer said. "The public has a right to know whether the White House is actually taking substantive steps to fulfill its pledge to cooperate with the investigation or whether the Administration is playing a spin game to make it look like it is cooperating."

In his letter to Comey, Schumer wrote that the "investigation has been underway for four months now and we have received no meaningful reports regarding the progress you are making. I realize there are limitations on information that can be disclosed regarding an ongoing criminal investigation, but, as we have discussed, a prosecutor has the responsibility to assure public confidence in criminal investigations, especially those of such a serious nature.

"In the wake of recent calls by former intelligence operatives for a Congressional investigation, I write to ask that you publicly answer several questions regarding the progress you are making. Has a grand jury been empaneled in this case? Have members of the White House staff signed waivers, permitting journalists to discuss confidential communications? If so, what percent of the White House staff has signed such waivers? Has anyone who has been asked to sign such a waiver refused to do so?

"Have journalists been interviewed as part of the investigation? Has any journalist who has been released from confidentiality (assuming any has), refused to answer questions regarding previously confidential communications? Were White House staffers ordered as a condition of employment to submit to interviews?

"Has anyone asked for or been offered immunity? If so, how many individuals fit in each category and what types of immunity have been asked for and offered to each? What other information can you provide us regarding the progress you are making with this investigation?"

Schumer has praised the Attorney General's decision to recuse himself from the investigation into who leaked the name of the CIA agent and lauded the appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald to lead the probe. Schumer was the first to call for a thorough investigation of the leak after it appeared in Robert Novak's column. In October, he urged Ashcroft to appoint a special counsel and to formally recuse himself from the Justice Department's investigation into whether senior White House officials illegally leaked a covert CIA operative's identity to the media.

For a copy of the letter click here.

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