Leakgate: Pressure on Ashcroft to Recuse Himself Grows

Several senior federal law enforcement officials in recent days have spoken privately among themselves of what they believe to be an increasing necessity by Attorney General John Ashcroft to formally recuse himself from any further role in the probe as to who leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Their concerns have intensified as investigators have begun to interview a number of personal friends and political associates of Ashcroft.

That belief among the senior law enforcement officials has only intensified in recent days since as many as a half-dozen White House officials have been asked by federal investigators about contacts they had with the Republican National Committee and conservative political activists. Investigators apparently are looking at whether the contacts were aimed at discrediting Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Ashcroft’s own deputy chief of staff and a recently departed director of public affairs for the Justice Department have held senior positions at the Republican National Committee. Several investigators question whether Ashcroft should continue to oversee the investigation, as more individuals close to Attorney General and his staff are drawn into the probe, according to federal law enforcement officials. A smaller number of investigators also privately support Ashcroft naming a special counsel to take over the probe entirely.

The White House and the RNC have worked closely together to stymie the political fallout from the Plame affair, according to administration and Republican party officials. At least a half dozen White House officials have been asked about their contacts with the RNC, according to two Bush administration officials. The same officials also say they do not believe that investigators are probing the efforts by the White House and the RNC as criminal misconduct, but rather as a means of determining who leaked Plame’s identity as a CIA officer last July to conservative columnist Robert D. Novak.

Mark Carollo, the director of communications for the Justice Department, said in an interview that although the question of whether Ashcroft might at some point recuse himself or appoint a special counsel is still an open one, nobody directly involved in the probe has yet told Ashcroft that he should remove himself.

“The investigation is being run by career veterans of the criminal division,” said Carollo. “No-one who has access to the Attorney General had made any such recommendation to him that he recuse himself.”

“There are a lot of people in this town and some in the department who have made themselves heard that there should be a special counsel,” Carollo added, “but they are individuals without access to the facts . . . . They are not people directly involved in the investigation itself.”

The Plame investigation is currently supervised by John Dion, a 30-year veteran federal prosecutor, who heads the Justice Department’s counterespionage section. He has twice won the John Marshall award for Outstanding Achievement, during both Democratic and Republican administrations.

“Dion regularly briefs the Attorney General,” a senior Justice Department official, who is sympathetic to Ashcroft, said in an interview, “and Dion has never once suggested that the Attorney General recuse himself.” Dion himself was unavailable for comment.

Carollo confirmed Dion regularly meets with Ashcroft for "status updates" regarding the leak investigation: "The attorney general wants this to be investigated thoroughly and promptly, and to that end, he wants to be informed of the progress of investigators,” explained Carollo.

But another senior federal law enforcement official said that simply the fact that Ashcroft receives briefings about a criminal investigation in which the stakes are so high for the Attorneys General’s personal friends, political allies, and political party “is a reason in and of itself that has caused for some of us a state of disquiet . . . . Attorneys General and U.S. Attorneys have in the past traditionally recused for far less than this. The evolving standard has become that even an appearance of a conflict of interest will cause the public not to trust the [legal] process.”