WP Online - Froomkin has some Plame scuttlebutt

[swag]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38597-2004Jul9.html

. . .
Waas writes that before a special counsel was appointed to lead the investigation in December, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was getting frequent, detailed updates "relating to the potential culpability of several close political associates in the Bush administration."

Waas's sources tell him that, for instance, "Ashcroft was provided extensive details of an FBI interview of Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's chief political advisor."

"In addition, sources said, Ashcroft received a briefing regarding copious notes maintained by I. Lewis Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney."

Waas writes that some of Libby's notes describe efforts to discredit Wilson by the mysterious cabal known as the White House Iraq Group. Little is known about that group beyond what Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus wrote in The Washington Post last August. But it included Rove, Libby, adviser Karen Hughes and other top White House players.

. . .