Woodward apologizes for silence

WASHINGTON — Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward apologized Wednesday to the newspaper's top editor for withholding for more than two years the fact that a Bush administration official had told him the identity of a CIA agent at the heart of a 23-month federal criminal investigation.

Woodward apologized to executive editor Leonard Downie for not disclosing the information before now, the Post reported on its Web site. "I apologized because I should have told him about this much sooner," Woodward told the Post. "I explained in detail that I was trying to protect my sources. That's job No. 1 in a case like this."

Woodward said he "hunkered down" with the information because he didn't want to get subpoenaed to testify before the federal grand jury; former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in federal prison for refusing to testify in the case, and another reporter, Time's Matthew Cooper, testified only after the magazine said it would comply with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's subpoena. Other reporters, including two from the Post, agreed to answer limited questions on the matter.

Fitzgerald's probe centers on whether the administration outed CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003 to retaliate against her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for publicly accusing the administration of distorting intelligence on Iraq's weapons program to justify invading the country.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff on Oct. 28 after being indicted in the case, has said he first learned Plame's identity from a reporter. The indictment charges Libby with lying when he told a federal grand jury that he learned Plame's name from NBC News reporter Tim Russert. Libby's lawyer, Theodore Wells, said Wednesday that Woodward's revelations undermine the case against his client.

Legal experts disagreed on whether Woodward's disclosure would affect the outcome of Libby's case. Former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said the impact "is probably minimal" because "the question before the jury will be whether Libby lied." Former federal prosecutor Larry Barcella differed, saying it might give Libby's lawyers an opportunity to create doubts about Fitzgerald's reasoning.

Woodward answered questions from Fitzgerald under oath for more than two hours on Nov. 14, the Post reported. Woodward has declined to publicly identify the official who told him about Wilson's wife, citing a confidentiality agreement with the official, Downie said on CNN Wednesday.