You may recall a theory I postulated a few weeks back that when Libby called Robert Grenier on June 11, 2003, he asked questions he already knew the answers to. He wasn’t really looking for information. Rather, he was hoping to get the information from a source he could use publicly; he was trying to get certain information about the Wilsons out while hiding Dick Cheney’s original source for the information (I’ll return to what I suspect was one of Cheney’s original sources for the information soon). Well, as I suggested in my first post on what Jeff Lomonaco and I found in the CIPA filings, there is further evidence of such an attempt to launder information. Before I show you one of three documents we found, let me remind you of the chronology:
June 8, 2003: Condi gets beat up on George Stephenopolous’ show when she claims no one knew the Niger claims were bunk
June 9, 2003: Libby relays to Cheney that Bush is interested in the Kristof article; that same day, Libby requests information from Craig Schmall on the intelligence, and Schmall sends three reports to Libby and John Hannah, to be delivered ASAP
Unknown day, almost certainly this week: Cheney shares information on the trip with Libby, telling Libby that Wilson’s wife works at CPD
June 10, 2003, late afternoon: The email below sent, along with a response
June 11, 2003, 12 PM: Libby in meeting with Marc Grossman where he probably gets a response on his inquiry about Wilson’s trip,
June 11, 2003, also 12PM, Cheney meets with John McLaughlin on Wilson trip
1:05 PM: Libby, Cheney, and Cathie Martin meet; during that meeting, Libby calls Robert Grenier to–he claims–gather preliminary information on Wilsons trip
The email below makes it almost certain that Cheney knew the information they said they were seeking from Grenier when they called him. That is, they were looking to use him to launder information about the Wilsons. The information Libby elicited from Grenier? That Plame worked at CIA and that State and DOD were interested in the Niger intelligence, as well as OVP.
The email below was sent late on June 10, among people at the CIA, in an attempt to answer very specific questions Cheney had asked, presumably of John McLaughlin. [Note, there are some transcription errors here; I’ll correct the obvious ones, and leave the ones I’m unsure about; I should have an actual document to link to in a few days.]