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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165007,00.htmlWhite House Spokesman Often in Tough Spots
WASHINGTON — When details began emerging in 2003 to suggest that senior administration officials may have leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame (search), White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that anyone in the White House found to be involved "would no longer be in this administration."
McClellan also denied, based on all "available information," that White House senior adviser Karl Rove (search) and other high-level administration officials were involved in the leak, calling the suggestion "ridiculous."
Fast forward to July 11, 2005. McClellan finds himself on the hot seat in front of a hostile White House press corps, days after it is revealed that Rove told Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper that the unnamed wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson had played a role in sending Wilson to Niger in 2002 to investigate whether Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy enriched uranium from the African nation.
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McClellan's critics have suggested that his credibility with the press corps was severely damaged on this story from nearly the beginning because almost immediately the CIA asked for a Justice Department probe into whether White House officials were guilty of leaking a covert agent's name to reporters. McClellan's earlier remarks also appeared to jumpstart the record that Bush's desire was to see fired anyone involved in the leak.
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