WASHINGTON — The Justice Department disclosed Friday that it was investigating who had leaked classified information about President Bush's top-secret domestic spying program -- paving the way for a potentially contentious criminal probe that could reach high into the White House, Congress and the courts.
Several U.S. officials familiar with the investigation -- which is in its infancy -- said it would be conducted by FBI agents trained in probing national security and counterintelligence matters.
The officials said the investigation would focus primarily on disclosures in the New York Times that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance on people in the U.S. without getting warrants from a special federal court established to approve them.
The warrantless spying program has caused an uproar in Congress and among privacy experts, who said the Bush administration might have broken the law by intentionally bypassing the secret federal court that is supposed to oversee sensitive investigations involving suspected espionage and terrorism.
As in the politically charged leak investigation into who unmasked CIA operative Valerie Plame, witnesses and potential targets of any criminal prosecution -- including journalists -- probably would be brought before a federal grand jury, U.S. officials said. Jurors would hear evidence and ultimately vote on whether to issue indictments.
The officials said that all federal probes into leaks of classified information were sensitive. But the level of sensitivity surrounding the current probe is extraordinary -- and likely to intensify -- because of the presumption that few government officials had access to the program's details. Most of those potential witnesses are high-ranking administration officials, in the NSA or other intelligence agencies, or in top-level posts in Congress or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Officials at the Justice Department, FBI and National Security Agency refused to comment in detail, except to confirm Friday that the criminal probe was underway.
"We have opened an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information related to the NSA. We have no comment beyond that," said a Justice Department spokesman, who said he was not authorized to comment by name because the investigation was ongoing.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush learned of the probe in a Friday morning briefing by senior aides at his ranch near Crawford, Texas.
