http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002419.htmlClue: Was it Col. Cheney in the East Room with the lead pipe CIA leak?
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On Match 5, 2004, the Chicago Tribune reported (via TalkLeft) that Fitzgerald's office had subpoenaed the guest list for a dinner event that had been held in the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2003, right around the time that Plame's name was leaked to the media. The event was a 90th birthday dinner for ex-president Gerald Ford.
The same article, and others, have listed the journalists who may have received a White House leak on the subject and were also served with subpoenas. One of those reporters is NBC's Andrea Mitchell, whose involvement in the case has never been fully clear.
Of the possible leakers and possible leakees, the ones who can be placed in the East Room that night? Dick Cheney and Andrea Mitchell. Here's the evidence:
1) Dick Cheney was there. It of course, it would be shocking if he weren't, since Cheney is not only the vice oresident but is the government official who is closest to Ford, having served as White House chief of staff during the mid-1970s. As Lloyd Grove of the Washington Post reported the day before (via Nexis):
Among the 130 expected guests at the business-attire event are Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- both ex-Ford White House chiefs of staff -- former White House press secretary Ron Nessen, former presidential counselor Robert Hartmann and the trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, which is underwriting the festivities.
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It's possible that Mitchell could have discussed the Wilson-Plame matter with others at the White House that night. Undoubtedly, Fitzgerald's subpoena shows he wanted to know everyone who was there. But Cheney is the only scandal figure mentioned in any news accounts of the event, and -- given the nature of the dinner and the limited seating -- it seems likely that only high-level players attended.
Even an off-hand remark to that night could help the prosecutor tie the vice president to the broader anti-Wilson campaign tied back to WHIG. Machiavelli once advised, "never wound the prince," so if Fitzgerald is gunning for someone as high as Cheney, he's going to need all the ammo he can get. Even if it's from a birthday party.
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