Mind the 12-Hour Gap

How many documents do you think can be shredded in 12 hours? I bet someone at the White House knows…

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, responding to a strong charge in a column by Frank Rich in The New York Times’ today, said there was nothing improper about waiting 12 hours to “preserve all materials” after being informed by the Justice Department in 2003 that it was launching an investigation into the disclosure of Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA agent.

Gonzales told Bob Schieffer on the CBS show “Face the Nation” that he had been given permission by the Justice Department to hold off overnight if he saw fit, which he did. But he did tell one man that night: Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions Sunday about whether Card passed that information to top Bush aide Karl Rove or anyone else, giving them advance notice to prepare for the investigation, the Associated Press reported after Gonzales' revelation.

[…]

Schieffer then asked if he at least informed anyone at the White House that first night to “get ready” for the order.

Yes, Gonzales said, he told the president’s chief of staff that night, and then the president himself “first thing” the next day.

12 hours. That’s almost 39 times 18 ½ minutes. These guys really do manage to out-crook Nixon at every turn, don’t they? Steven Brant at The Huffington Post has an excellent post on this issue, and the WaPo doesn’t lead with it, but it gets page A02, which is still pretty good.

On a side note, are we meant to believe that Card didn’t mention this to Bush at all for those 12 hours, and Bush didn’t find out about it until Gonzales told him the next morning? Seems odd that this wouldn’t be brought to the president’s attention. Unless he was out riding his bike, of course.