Two Democrats in Congress are pressing for investigations into how a Washington reporter who used a pseudonym managed to gain access to the White House and had access to classified documents that named Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative.
The Democrats, Representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Louise M. Slaughter from Rochester, wrote yesterday to Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor appointed in the Plame case, seeking an investigation into how the reporter, James D. Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame.
Until Wednesday when he resigned, Mr. Guckert worked for TalonNews.com, a Web site operated by Robert Eberle, a Texas Republican. Mr. Guckert said in a March 2004 interview with his own news service, in which he was referred to as Mr. Gannon, that the classified document had been "easily accessible." The two Democrats questioned how a person with "dubious qualifications" had access to such a document. The Democrats also wrote to the Secret Service seeking an explanation of how someone using a pseudonym was cleared to enter the White House daily press briefings as well as a presidential news conference last month. They said in their letter that allowing such a person in "appears to deviate significantly from heightened security measures you have employed recently."
Mr. Guckert resigned from Talon saying he had been harassed by liberals on the Internet. Bloggers grew suspicious of him after President Bush called on him at the news conference and the reporter suggested that Democrats had "divorced themselves from reality." Spearheaded by a Web site called Media Matters For America, the bloggers discredited him.
Photo of the White House.Credit:  dcJohn
A lack of thorough and consistent measures to pick the White House press corps members has led many to question the reason a little-known conservative reporter had access to sensitive documents and the President of the United States.

Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, has been operating under an assumed name while attending White House press briefings. Gannon/Guckert was a reporter for the news service Talon News, a website believed by some to be a branch of the GOPUSA, up until his recent resignation due to the incidents surrounding him.

The spotlight was originally cast on Guckert when called upon in a January 26 news conference. He asked President George W. Bush how he could work with Democratic congressional leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." Bloggers, seeing this as a "softball" question almost immediately began to question Guckert’s credentials and motives.

Guckert supposedly had access to classified documents that named Valerie Plame as a CIA operative as well, which adds more fuel to the fire of the Justice Department’s investigation of the release of her name.

Bloggers revealed James Guckert's real name, and that he was the registered owner of JeffGannon.com, Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com, and Militaryescortsm4m.com.

The accusations that Guckert has no degree in journalism, reports through a small organiztion funded by a larger conservative news outlet, operated under an assumed name, and is directly linked with pornographic domain names, have many questioning how exactly he received a press pass in the first place.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan, when questioned about this event, stated that Guckert did not have a regular White House press pass but was cleared on a day-by-day basis to attend briefings and used his real name. McClellan defended Guckert’s clearance saying that, "He, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes just like many others are."