Gregory has not publicly discussed whether he was told about Mrs. Wilson by Fleischer. Dickerson has published a different recollection of events, writing last year that a “senior administration official”
spoke to me on background about Wilson and the president’s amazing decision to blame the CIA…The official walked me through all the many problems with Wilson’s report: His work was sloppy, contradictory, and hadn’t been sanctioned by Tenet or any senior person. Some low-level person at the CIA was responsible for the mission. I was told I should go ask the CIA who sent Wilson.
Dickerson also wrote that a short time later, another senior administration official “pointed out a few times that Wilson had been sent by a low-level CIA employee and encouraged me to follow that angle.” But in Dickerson’s account, White House officials did not tell him that Wilson’s wife was involved; Fleischer’s testimony is the first such claim.
In any event, Fleischer testified that nobody seemed to care much about his news about Wilson’s wife. “The press’s reaction was, ‘So what,’” Fleischer testified. “It was a big so-what.”