Berger leak timing

A lot of people, including Joshua Marshall of talkingpointsmemosay there is something fishy about the timing of the FBI investigation being leaked to the press.

“… Berger has apparently been under investigation by the Justice Department) since last October,” MArshall writes. How odd then that they leak it to the public the same week the 9/11 Commission reveals their findings. You’d almost think they’d want to shift the blame to Clinton by associating his National Security Adviser with the attacks.

But then there is this statement from Commission member Gorelick on Lou Dobbs Tonight:

GORTON: Well, we can’t shed any light on exactly what happened there and on Sandy Berger’s troubles with the Justice Department and the Archives. What we can say unequivocally is we had all of that information. We have every one of those documents. All of them have — are infused in and are a part of our report.

DOBBS: So the commission was denied no information as a result of whatever Sandy Berger did or did not do at the National Archives?

GORTON: That’s precisely correct.

GORELICK: And we have been so assured by the Justice Department. (transcript link here link) (also via TPM

Bearing in mind that Bush’s National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice literally had to be dragged in front of the Commission (editorial) only to reveal that Arthur Clarke had written a memo and if she relalled the title of this particular memom. The most shaking moment of the entire Comission hearings probably was when Rice responded to a question “I believe the title was ‘Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.’ ”

So to sum up: Berger never withheld information. Rice didn’t want to testify in the first place, then did so to reveal information that had been previoously withheld, only for the entire Bush administration to change their stance afterwards (column).

I’d say while Berger clearly did something he shouldn’t have done, withholding information from the Commission is a far greater offense.