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Bye

Correction: The “18 page list of questions” did not include the phrase “Joe Wilson’s wife.” That was on another piece of paper that Woodward thinks was on his desk at the time. (it had been prepared for a talk with Andy Card.)

Comment: The disclosure in Time magazine that Woodward asked his source twice (in 2004 and in 2005) for a waiver before getting one just recently puts Woodward firmly in the center of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. The fact that he did not tell his editor (a disclosure that was required and that would not require a waiver) cements that position.

The key component in Woodward’s “testimony” is not that he was told before anyone else, it is his claim that Pincus knew about “Wilson’s wife” before Pincus talked to any administration officials. It is highly likely that immediately after Woodward told Downie, Downie notified the Post’s lawyers, who in turn notified the Special Prosecutor’s office.

(The Post was involved in the negotiations concerning Pincus’s deposition in the Plame case, and both Downie and the lawyers were doubtless aware of what Pincus would testify to. Since Pincus did not recall any such conversation with Woodward, je would have testified that when his source discussed “Wilson’s wife” it was the first time he heard about it.)

The disclosure to Fitzgerald would have come within days of the expiration of the grand jury, when it was too late to do anything about it. With the testimony of a key witness thrown into serious question, Fitzgerald would have had to rethink who got indicted, and for what.

Woodward is, in other words, not an observer, but a major participant in this drama right now. It comes as no surprise that Woodward minimized the investigation the night before the indictment was handed down — he no doubt thought that he’d managed to throw a spanner into the entire works.

And Woodward’s story does not add up. Woodward knows that reporters are supposed to disclose everything of relevance to their editors, especially in controversial cases such as this when the lawyers get involved.

That means that Woodward, if he truly believed that Pincus knew about “Wilson’s wife” from him, also knew that information would have been disclosed to Downie.

So there was nothing stopping Woodward from telling Downie what Downie ALREADY should have known, if Woodward is telling the truth about telling Pincus. Yet, Woodward did not tell Downie.

Woodward ceased to be a journalist a long time ago.