Briefing Plame Affair - Sanford introduced word "treason"

Clip of Press Briefing by Scott McClellan, July 25, 2005

Sanford introduced word "treason" to the Plame Affair.

Update 12-27-2006: Lawyer Paul Sanford who introduced the word "treason" to the Plame Affair ends up dead

Monterey County Herald -- In what police describe as a "probable" suicide leap, a prominent Monterey Bay Area attorney fell at least nine floors to his death at the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay in Seaside the morning before Christmas.

Mills said Sanford decided in recent years to add journalism to his many occupations.

Almost immediately, he caused a stir after he joined the White House Press Corps in 2005, making waves as the first reporter to ask then-White House press secretary Scott McClellan whether the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name might be considered an act of treason:

"There has been a lot of speculation concerning the meaning of the underlying statute and the grand jury investigation concerning Mr. Rove," Sanford asked. "The question is, have the legal counsel to the White House or White House staff reviewed the statute in sufficient specificity to determine whether a violation of that statute would, in effect, constitute treason?"

McClellan was apparently flustered by the question and replied that "those are matters for those overseeing the investigation to decide."

Friends and associates expressed disbelief at the news of Sanford's death and that it was ruled a suicide, saying Sanford seemed happy and had made many plans for this week and in coming months. Mills said he and Sanford recently decided to open a shared law office to serve Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, something Sanford was looking forward to doing.

He and Sanford spoke on the phone "around four or five times a day," Mills said, and the two had just spoken on Thursday, "tweaking a marketing plan" for their new law practice before Mills went out of town for the Christmas holiday.

"I just don't know what happened since Thursday. There was nothing on the horizon there to know this was going to happen," Mills said. "We were going to get together this week." .....

....Police declined to state exactly why they ruled the case a suicide.

***

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Cheney
• Valery
• Plame
• Plamegate
• Scooter
• Libby
• Rove
• Sanford
• CIA
• leaking

[FTMxLEGENDS]

What does " Treason " mean?

[jewishcarpenter]

Word on the street is McClellan pulled a Forrest Gump and is still running away from that question. Run, McClellan RUN!

[adamsfall]

On October 26th, 2003, Pres. Bush himself said that that the outting of Plame was a CRIME. LOOK IT UP!!! He also said that the WH would investigate. It never did.

[demliars]

If scooter Libby outed a legitimate CIA spy and harmed our country you scumbags would worship him.

Cry me a river.

[ad3543]

Forgot? You are retarded. Nobody believes that for a minute. This administration just allowed the illegal sale of weapons systems to Iran. Thank goodness the Democrats stopped them. As for the Chinese, you are talking nonsense. Show us your source. Of course it will be that drug addict Limbaugh or the retarded Bill Orally. You are a fool.

[ad3543]

You idiot. Outing a CIA agent because her husband told the truth about the lies that got us into a war that promotes terrorism is treason. If you support them you are a traitor too.

[ad3543]

Treason, plain and simple. They are war criminals to boot. Send them to the Hague for trial.

[demliars]

FU, let's send democrat leaders to the Hague since they obviosly could care less about victory over terrorism.

9-11 was the worst direct attack on us ever, democrats use it to gain leftist power. That's not treason?

[demliars]

Treason a capital offense? I guess not, our last President allowed the sale of satellite technolgy to the Chinese so they can now target our mainland.

Scooter Libby forgot the order of conversations about scumbags causing problems, and were not about crimes..

[demliars]

ROFL! Libs worried about treason! Treason to them, they outed an attempt to lie about Bush and who sent Wilson to africa. That scumabg Schumer is behind this.