Tight Sphincter Time For White House: Novak Cooperated With Fitzgerald

by Steve

The Washington Post is running a story in Monday’s edition on the Plame investigation that is eye-opening, because it is clearly designed by the reporters and their editors as a pushback against any White House/GOP arguments that Patrick Fitzgerald was partisan or wasn’t fair.

Oh, and did I mention that the story is also noteworthy because it confirms that Robert Novak has been cooperating with Fitzgerald from the start?

A critical early success for Fitzgerald was winning the cooperation of Robert D. Novak, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist who named Plame in a July 2003 story and attributed key information to "two senior administration officials." Legal sources said Novak avoided a fight and quietly helped the special counsel's inquiry, although neither the columnist nor his attorney have said so publicly.

I wonder if the White House knew this before tonight?