Boy got himself a lawyer over the Valerie Plame Outing Investigation. First smart move he's made since being installed.
Bush Finds Lawyer to Use if Called in Leak Case
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, June 2 - President Bush has met with a private lawyer whom he intends to hire to represent him if he is questioned as part of a grand jury investigation into the public disclosure of a C.I.A. undercover officer's identity, the White House said Wednesday.
Mr. Bush met recently with the Washington lawyer, Jim Sharp, to consult with him about the case, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said, confirming a report on "CBS Evening News.''
"The president has had discussions with Mr. Sharp, and in the event he would need his advice, the president would likely retain him," Mr. McClellan said in a telephone interview.
"The president has stated on numerous occasions that he wants the White House to fully cooperate, and that would include himself," he added. "He wants the investigation to come to a successful conclusion."
Federal prosecutors are seeking to determine who disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame, a C.I.A. officer, to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak for a column he wrote last summer. Disclosure of the identity of an undercover officer for the Central Intelligence Agency can be a federal crime.
It was unclear on Wednesday night why Mr. Bush waited until what appears to be the last stages of the investigation into the leak before he consulted with a lawyer. One administration official speculated that the president must have had some indication that investigators now want to question him.
