Bush: 'Perhaps Somebody in the Administration' Outed CIA Operative Valerie Plame

ABC News' Jason Ryan, Theresa Cook and Jon Garcia report: President George W. Bush acknowledged publicly for the first time Thursday that "perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name" of then-CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

"I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person," Bush told reporters Thursday during a White House press conference.

When the controversy began four years ago, Bush said he would fire anyone in his administration found to have publicly disclosed the identity of Plame, then a CIA operative, which is a federal crime.

"You know, I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, 'I did it.' Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter?" Bush said.

The President said it has been "a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it's run its course, and now we're going to move on."

Bush recently commuted the 30-month prison sentence given to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the Vice President's former chief of staff, in connection with the case. The President defended his controversial decision to commute the sentence Thursday, saying, "The Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision."

Libby was convicted in March of lying to the FBI and a grand jury, as well as obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation. Bush kept the other portions of Libby's sentence, two years probation and a $250,000 fine, intact. Libby paid the fine last week.

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So now we see how this administration operates: do the crime, obfuscate, litigate, lose, commute sentence, admit crimes, move on...