It’s not just Karl Rove anymore that the White House has to answer for. It’s also I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney.

We already know that it was a complete falsehood when Scott McClellan said in 2003 “it’s simply not true” that Rove was “involved in leaking classified information.” It was similarly false when McClellan denied that Libby was involved in the leak.

As reported by the Washington Post, Libby served as a source for Matt Cooper:

In a conversation that same day [July 11, 2003], Rove told Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper that Wilson’s wife was in the CIA and authorized the mission to Niger A day later, Cheney’s top aide, I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, told Cooper he had heard the same thing about Plame

And could he also have been Judith Miller’s source?:

While media coverage in recent days has focused on conversations White House senior adviser Karl Rove had with reporters, two sources say Miller spoke with Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, during the key period in July 2003 that is the focus of Fitzgerald’s investigation. The two sources, one who is familiar with Libby’s version of events and the other with Miller’s, said the previously undisclosed conversation occurred a few days before Plame’s name appeared in Robert D. Novak’s syndicated column on July 14, 2003.

But remember what McClellan said on October 10, 2003:

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The New York Times reports this morning:

A 1982 statute makes it a crime for people with authorized access to classified information to knowingly identify covert agents. If officials learned the information solely from reporters rather than from confidential files, they probably did not violate the law. Even if they came to know the information in both ways, the fact that it was in public circulation would suggest that it was not particularly secret.

That’s not quite true. This characterization by the Times fails to report the duties assigned to individuals, like Karl Rove, who receive national security clearance. Administration officials who are given the national security clearance to receive classified information are required to sign the “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement,” also known as the “SF 312.” The SF 312 Briefing Booklet helps answer questions about the practices and procedures that should be followed by individuals given top national security clearance. Here’s what question #19 in that booklet says:

Question 19: If information that a signer of the SF 312 knows to have been classified appears in a public source, for example, in a newspaper article, may the signer assume that the information has been declassified and disseminate it elsewhere?

Answer: No. Information remains classified until it has been officially declassified. Its disclosure in a public source does not declassify the information. Of course, merely quoting the public source in the abstract is not a second unauthorized disclosure. However, before disseminating the information elsewhere or confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source, the signer of the SF 312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. If it has not, further dissemination of the information or confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure.

The answer makes clear that Rove not only had a duty not to disclose the identity of a covert CIA agent, but he also had an affirmative duty prior to confirming Plame’s identity with a reporter to first “confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified.” Thus, the argument by Rove allies, as reported by CNN, that “Rove was the recipient of information, not a provider” is irrelevant. Instead of saying “I heard that, too,” Rove’s answer to Novak should have been “no comment” when Novak said he heard Plame worked at the CIA. But that answer of course would have prevented him from engaging in the smear campaign against Wilson.