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Key questions about the widening "Jeff Gannon" scandal:
1. How did Guckert get past White House security to get within spitball distance of the President?
- Who approved Guckert's White House press credentials? What were the precise roles of Scott McClellan, Ari Fleischer, and Karl Rove?
- Who "vouched" for Guckert? What were the precise roles of GOPUSA.com owner Bobby Eberle and his brother Bruce Eberle, a major GOP fundraiser? What about their friends Grover Norquist and G. Gordon Liddy?
- Did the Secret Service investigate Guckert's background? Did they discover his prostitution business? Did they discover his $20,000 tax delinquency? Did they object to his access to the President? Were they overruled?
2. Was Guckert part of a criminal conspiracy to expose a covert CIA operative?
- Did Guckert get access to an internal CIA memo that named Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA agent. (Washington Post 12/03 via DailyKos).
- Was Gannon part of a White House conspiracy to expose a covert CIA operative?
- In 2003, Gannon was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame regarding White House records on contacts with journalists (MediaMatters). What was his testimony? Did he tell the truth?
3. Was Guckert "planted" in the White House press corps as a "shill" to interfere with hard questions from legitimate journalists?
- "In reviewing White House press conferences from the past year, Media Matters for America has noted numerous instances in which Gannon's lobs -- leading questions that often include false assumptions favorable to the Bush administration -- have allowed McClellan to move to friendlier turf, away from having to answer questions on such issues as the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment; the Bush administration's relationship with former Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi; the growing trade deficit with China; and President Bush's Texas Air National Guard record."
4. Was Guckert's "shilling" part of larger White House propaganda strategy?
- Planted fake news stories on local TV stations to push its agenda
- Put journalists on the government payroll
- Had supposedly independent journalists testify to Congress when they were being paid by the government
- Paid off journalists to push its agenda in the larger media
- And now, planted fake journalists in the White House press room and passed them CIA documents to push its agenda
5. How many lies and smears did Guckert promote while operating in the White House?
- 4/1/04 falsely accused Teresa Heinz Kerry of funding protest at Karl Rove's home (MediaMatters)
- 6/15/04 falsely declared a "proven link" between Iraq and Al Qaeda (MediaMatters)
- 7/15/04 falsely accused Joseph Wilson of lying (MediaMatters)
6. How many lies has Guckert told since he was exposed by Americablog?
- 2/05 falsely claimed to be the only conservative at White House press briefings - ignoring FOX News, the Washington Times, Weekly Standard, National Review, WorldNetDaily.com and dozens of conservative publications.
- 2/05 falsely claimed his critics were following him to church and threatening his family
- 2/05 falsely claimed his publication had 700,000 daily readers
- 2/20/05 NY Times interview: Guckert "said had never even made phone calls to administration officials, not even to ask routine questions or clarify basic facts."
- 2/20/05 NY Times interview: "Guckert said he had never worked on political campaigns, or for the Republican Party." Guckert planted stories for GOP Senate candidate John Thune in his race against Tom Daschle.
Related issues:
- Why have no White House officials been indicted for the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame? Why hasn't Bob Novak been subpoenaed?
- How many laws have been broken by the White House in its multi-pronged propaganda efforts? Why hasn't the Justice Department indicted anyone?
- What happened to the investigation of Bruce Eberle and John Ashcroft over the illegal fundraising list used in Ashcroft's campaign?
- Was Morton Blackwell the mastermind of the 2000 Florida "felon" purge that helped Bush to steal Florida? Morton's wife Helen Blackwell chaired the Voting Integrity Project, which gave a special award to DBT in November 2000 for its role in purging 100,000 Florida voters.
Official Actions in Progress:
- On 2/10/05 Reps. John Conyers and Louise Slaughter urged Special Prosecutor Peter Fitzgerald to expand their investigation of the outing of Valerie Plame to include Guckert. Is Fitzgerald stonewalling?
- On 2/11/05 Senator Frank Lautenberg demanded all documents from White House press secretary Scott McClellan related to the credentialing of Jim Guckert
