The Tell-Tale Stall

As Jonathan Karl reported then for ABC News: "Three officials told ABC News Miers urged the CIA not to destroy the tapes." And CNN reported that on that same day, "two senior administration officials told CNN that then-deputy White House counsel Harriet Miers was aware of the tapes and told the CIA not to destroy them.

"The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of potential investigations on the matter, said they believe this is 'exculpatory' for the White House because it shows a top official had told the CIA not to destroy the tapes. The officials also said the information about the tapes was not relayed to the president until this week."

Is Perino prepared to deny that any of those sources were inside the White House? I doubt it. And for her to suggest that it is taking the high road to refuse to comment on the record about a matter of great public significance is the pinnacle of chutzpah.

Meanwhile, in the Judicial Branch

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "A federal judge in Washington yesterday ordered a court hearing Friday to examine whether the CIA violated a judicial order by destroying videotapes showing harsh interrogation methods, rebuffing pleas from the Bush administration that he stay out of the matter while the executive branch's own probe is underway.

"The Justice Department had told U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. earlier that he had no jurisdiction to inquire into the destruction of the tapes. It separately told lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week to delay public hearings on the tapes' destruction while the department's National Security Division and the CIA inspector general's office conducted their probe.

"Congress agreed not to hold hearings now, but Kennedy decided, without comment, to schedule the court hearing. . . .

"The tapes were destroyed in November 2005, intelligence officials said. In June of that year, Kennedy had ordered the government to preserve detention and interrogation records as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit by a group of detainees held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

Richard B. Schmitt writes in the Los Angeles Times: "According to court papers, government lawyers said at the time that a formal order was not necessary because they were 'well aware of their obligation not to destroy evidence that may be relevant in pending litigation.' . . .

"In court papers filed last week, the Justice Department argued that the videos weren't covered by the order because at the time Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were being held in secret CIA prisons overseas. The men were later transferred to the Guantanamo Bay prison."

Mazzetti and Shane explain in the Times that while there is no publicly known connection between the plaintiffs in that case and the C.I.A. videotapes, "lawyers in several Guantanamo cases contend that the government may have used information from the C.I.A. interrogations to identify their clients as 'unlawful combatants' and hold them at Guantanamo for as long as six years."

Wait for Mukasey?

A Washington Post editorial this morning suggests that Congress do what Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey has asked: hold off on investigating the destruction of the tapes until the Justice Department has a chance to pursue criminal charges.

But as the editorial itself acknowledges, some of the guilt may in fact lie with the Justice Department -- and its White House masters: "In their letter last week to Mr. Mukasey, [Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)] asked entirely legitimate questions: 'Did Department officials or attorneys communicate views on the advisability or legality of destroying the tapes? What communication has the Department had with the White House about the existence, plan to destroy, and destruction of the videotapes?'"