WASHINGTON — Hundreds of White House employees, selected in alphabetical order, filed into Room 450 of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Tuesday to begin ethics refresher courses on how to handle classified information.
With the CIA leak investigation contributing to a drop in his approval ratings, President Bush ordered the hourlong briefings by White House Ethics Officer Richard Painter to be conducted over the next two weeks.
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said the briefings were mandatory for all 3,000 people who work in White House offices and agencies, except for the two men who hired the staff: Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Tuesday's audience included staffers whose last names began with the early letters of the alphabet, including White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, the president's top political advisor, is expected to attend class today.
Bush decided to order the refresher courses, a redo of the classes that every White House employee takes on arrival, after the indictment Oct. 28 of Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators and a grand jury looking into who leaked the name of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to the media.
Libby was not charged directly with violating any laws in revealing Plame's identity, but the indictment forced him to resign.
The indictment also asserted that an unnamed "Official A," who sources have said is Rove, told Libby that he had spoken about the CIA officer with syndicated columnist Robert Novak before Novak's July 14, 2003, column, which included the first public mention of Plame's name and CIA affiliation. Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is considering whether to charge Rove in connection with the case.
Some Democrats have urged the White House to revoke Rove's security clearance. McClellan said Tuesday that Rove was "continuing to perform his duties.... We appreciate all that he's doing."
The ethics briefings, McClellan said, include "a discussion about classified information and the proper handling of classified national security information, how that material is classified, by whom, for how long, who has access to it, how the material is declassified, the badges that people wear to show their security clearances, and so forth."
